The Marauder's School Years: Year One
by AlbusSeverusPotter7
Summary: The Marauders have started school at Hogwarts, and things look pretty calm and boring, but not for long. The Marauders are let loose to wreak havoc on the students, the staff, and Severus Snape. Follow the Marauders as they learn more than they ever thought they would.
1. Chapter 1

_Year One_

Chapter One

She was sitting on the train looking out of the window, gazing at the fields of grass, and reflected on what had been a hard and mentally demanding day. Lily thought of the last words her sister, Petunia said to her before she went away to Hogwarts for 4 months, "you're a freak!"

Severus looked up at her, "you're not still upset about Petunia, are you?" he asked.

"What do you think, Sev? She's angry because I'm a wizard and I'm going away for months, and now I've made things worse by telling her about the letter we found," Lily looked as though she were about to cry, "I don't know what to do, what if she hates me forever?" She asked.

"Well, you shouldn't let it affect you so, Lily- I mean look at where we're going to go" he exclaimed, seeing that Lily looked a bit happier he continued, " Hogwarts! Its going to be an amazing adventure." He looked out of the window and then back at Lily smiling, "you'd better be in Slytherin" he said.

"Slytherin! I think I'd leave if I had to go there" a voice said. Lily and Severus whipped their heads around to look at the black haired, bespectacled boy sitting next to them. "What about you?" he asked another boy sitting across from him.

"My whole family have been there" said the boy, who had long jet black hair that reached his shoulders, he sat there with an air of elegance, and Lily had to admit, his hair looked good and suited him nicely.

"Wow, and I thought you were alright?" said the boy sitting next to Severus.

"Don't worry, I think I'll probably break the tradition" said the long haired boy, "what about you, where do you think you'll go?" he asked the bespectacled boy.

"Gryffindor, where the brave dwell at heart- like my dad!" he said triumphantly.

Severus snorted, "yeah, if you rather be brawny than brainy." Lily smiled.

"Where are you hoping to go seeing as you're neither?" said the boy with glasses.

Severus tensed up and was beginning to rise out of his seat, "come on Severus, let's sit somewhere else" said Lily, walking out of the compartment. Severus trailed behind her.

The long haired boy tripped Severus and said, "See you later Snivellus."

His friend with glasses laughed, "So what's your name?"

"Sirius, Sirius Black. What about you?" he asked.

"James Potter" he said quickly, "wait, did you say Black?" he asked.

"Yeah, but don't worry, I'm not as crazy as my family" Sirius said with a laugh.

The two boys continued speculating on which houses they might be sorted in to until they caught a glimpse of the many turrets and towers of Hogwarts. They began to change into their robes and Sirius mentally prepared himself for the potential fact that he may, jut may, end up in Slytherin.

James, however, new exactly where he was going to end up, Gryffindor! Just like his father, he thought with a pang of excitement. Yet there was the small fact that a few Potters had ended up in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, and some even in Slytherin. He pushed such thoughts out of his head and turned towards Sirius, "ready?" he asked.

"Yeah, I've got this" said Sirius, denying the fact that he was light headed and very anxious.

They both tottered towards the door of their compartment and joined in the hustle and bustle through the packed corridors of the Hogwarts Express. They stepped out on to the platform and suddenly heard a man calling, "Firs' years, firs' years this way." They both weaved their way through the many students until they were right in front of the man. He had a large, wild beard and enormous hands and feet. The two boys were shunted aside as more and more first years came around. After about ten minutes of waiting the platform soon became less and less crowded. The giant man led the first years toward a fleet of boats and said, "Yer all goin' up ter the castle in these boats, four students per boat and le's get going."

Sirius and James went to sit down in a boat and were soon joined by another squat and plump boy with short blond hair and another thin and tall boy with light brown hair. The squat boy turned and looked at them from behind his somewhat scraggly hair and said, "Hello, my names Peter, you are?" as he stuck out a pudgy hand.

"James Potter" said James, taking it politely, "and this here is Sirius, Sirius Black."

Sirius shook hand with Peter and looked at the other boy siting at the bow of the boat, "hey you, what's your name?" he asked.

James shook his head in disbelief, "really" he thought "this kid doesn't have very good manner, not that I care though"

"my name's Remus, Remus Lupin" said the sandy haired boy.

Suddenly the boats began to move toward what they knew was the school. Everyone sat in silence as Hagrid began to talk of the forest, the lake, his hut, and some of the teachers. "Now" he said "the lady that I am goin' ter drop yer off with is Professer McGonagall, head o' Gryffindor house, she'll take yer all frem there." The rest of the students shifted uncomfortably as they began to come to terms with the fact that they all might potentially be split up from one another.

They reached a slight curve in the river, and soon came about it, and in front of them, was a magnificent castle made of stone, and parts covered in ivy. Lily and Severus were sitting in a boat a little ways from James and the other boys. Lily had her hands clamped over her mouth, and all the snide comments that Petunia had said to her were wiped from her mind, "it was beautiful" she thought. She continued to look at the castle in wonder. She didn't notice Severus who was watching her reaction bemused. He really liked Lily and was glad that she was going to Hogwarts with him. Each student was so entranced in what lay before them that they hadn't even noticed that the ride had stopped. They all clambered out of their boast, ad made their way up a small, narrow staircase that led them to two large oak doors.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The oak doors swung open and a tall woman dressed in Emerald Green robes and a pointed black hat appeared. Everyone was shocked and stunned. She definitely looked like someone you would not cross (except for Sirius, he knew that she would be a fun teacher to mess around with). "Her lips are so tight and thin, they look as though they can disappear any second" thought Sirius, he began to stifle a laugh, and James looked at him questionably, "I'll tell you later" mouthed Sirius and James nodded and looked back towards the front.

The lady had a long scroll of parchment rolled up in her hand along with a wand. She looked at Hagrid and said "thank you, I will take it from here Hagrid." With that, Hagrid walked past her and went up the staircase. The rest of the students waited a few minutes until, the tall woman began to walk up another set of stairs to the right. They walked in silence until they approached two doors that looked as though they were made of brass. The lady turned around and began to speak.

"Now" said the woman, "my name is Professor McGonagall and I am the Head of Gryffindor house. There are four Houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. In a few moments I will take you through these doors and you will be sorted into your houses. There are four long tables one per house and each of you will go to whichever house you have been sorted into's table and sit down quietly until the last student has been sorted. Then the Headmaster will give his welcome speech and the feast will commence.

Just as Professor McGonagall had said feast, Sirius' stomach gave a huge rumble. Lily, looked over her shoulder and gave him a disgusted look.

Professor McGonagall looked over in Sirius' direction and gave him a severe look, before turning to the bog doors and swinging them open.

All the first years gasped in shock, well, all except for a skinny, tall girl with curly dark blue, almost black hair in the back, standing next to Remus. She simply smiled at the hall, with her chocolate brown eyes wide open. The first years followed Professor McGonagall to the front table where on a large dais sat what they all presumed was the faculty of the school. Professor McGonagall disappeared for a few moments before re-emerging with a stool and a patched, frayed looking hat, which began to sing. After the song, McGonagall began to speak, addressing the entire hall, as well as the first years, "I will call your name, and you will each sit on the stool and I will place the sorting hat on your head and it will tell you to which house you will belong". She started down the list; Sirius Black, The girl with the blue hair (whose name is Demetria D.), Lily Evans, Alice Evergarde, Frank Longbottom, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, James Potter and Kiaria Verdana all ended up in Gryffindor, while Severus Snape went in to Slytherin).

When Lily was sorted she approached the Gryffindor table and looked around for some space to sit. After ignoring the space James had shifted to make for her, she settled down next to the girl with the blue hair. She'd sat in the same compartment as her when she and Severus left James and Sirius, but the girl had stayed quiet, her mind absorbed in a very large, very old looking book. She looked up at Lily and said, "You look like your head is on fire." Lily looked at her strangely, "no I don't mean it in a bad way, it's just such a vivid shade of red" she smiled.

Lily laughed, "Thanks, that's the first time I've heard that" the other girl's smile got even wider "we met on the train, and I hadn't gotten a chance to ask you your name, if you don't mind, what is it?"

"Oh, my name's Demetria, but people call me Demi" she said, "and yours?"

"Lily, Lily Evans" said Lily.

"I was thinking that your name would be rose, with hair like that. But I wasn't too far, you're a different flower" said Demetria. With that the two girls burst into a fit of giggles.

Not too far away sat Alice and Kiaria, who had already exchanged pleasantries with one another and were babbling away about the types of lessons they would have. A little further along sat Remus, Peter, Sirius and James, who were also taking about classes. Sirius had just finished giving the other three boys a rundown of all the extra reading and learning that his mother and father had forced him to do before coming here. "They aren't going to be happy about this" he said.

"About what?" asked Peter.

"The fact that I am a Gryffindor, I mean I knew that I was going to break the tradition, but I didn't really think about the consequences", he deadpanned.

"So, your parents will get mad because a piece of fabric set you away from the rest of your family?" said James summing all of Sirius' speech.

"Yeah, I guess" said Sirius with a straight face and for a moment, they all looked at one another, and the next, they were rolling about in fits of laughter.

All the students enjoyed the feast and then ended up in bed, bubbling with excitement at the prospect of going to all their classes the next day. Soon, one by one, they each fell asleep, all with a smile on his or her's face.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Lily woke up quite early that day, and decided to take a quick shower before waking up Demi, Alice and Kiaria. She thought it was odd, that there were only four first years per each house, and each gender. From what she'd heard during the feast that night, most wizarding parents had opted to keep their kids at home and teach them magic rather than sending them to Hogwarts. She presumed that some parents preferred to keep their children at home, but what she didn't know was that her assumption was quite wrong. Severus had explained to her that there was an evil man, who was against all the muggleborns and thought that they didn't deserve to be educated and Hogwarts and should be sent home, and/ or killed. "But they can't hurt you Lily, you're forgetting where you're going. We have Dumbledore, Lily. We will all be safe, as long as Dumbledore is around." She smiled at the memory, as she combed through her tangled locks. Her smile instantly vanished as she thought of the fact that she and Severus had been split up by a stupid hat. She'd been imagining going to Hogwarts for ages, but it was always with Severus at her side. She felt her eyes begin to water but she stopped tears from actually falling. "I'm being silly" she thought after a minute, "it's not like I'm never going to see him, we'll have classes together, we just won't be in the same house, big deal."

With that she began to wake up Demi, who the night before, had told Lily that she was a very deep sleeper. Lily shouted her name about 5 times to no avail, although it did wake up Alice and Kiaria, who after showering and brushing their teeth, began to help wake up Demi. After what seemed like ten minutes of shouting, throwing pillows and jumping on Demi's bed, they managed to get her up, thanks to a note that Demi had written the night before and they had just noticed was laying on her bedside table, it read; "if you want to wake me up, rip off the blankets, the castle is always freezing, and when your asleep your body has not adjusted to the temperature, I'll wake right up." The three girls ripped off the sheets and Demi shot up like they had doused her with ice cold water. "whaddid I miss" she shouted, and after looking at the bemused looks on all three girl's faces she added "oh, I'm up", she calmly stood up and stretched, and headed towards the bathroom. The three other girls looked at one another, and burst into a fit of giggles. Nearly ten minutes later, Demi emerged from the washroom with her hair in a towel and her uniform on. She proceeded to the mirror where she applied some cream to her face, and put on some chap stick. Carelessly, she opened up the towel and rapped the tip of her and on her head and muttered _"assicco"_ and turned round to face her roommates. They all had their mouths open in a comical "o".

"I get that it's the first day and all, but we haven't learned anything so how on earth-"started Lily.

"Did you do-" continued Alice.

"That" said Kiaria, all three pointed to Demi's hair.

"Oh, I learned it from a book I read over the summer, _One Thousand Spells to Make Life Easier_," She said. "Believe it was number twelve" she said thoughtfully, tapping her chin with her index finger. She looked back towards the group and said, "Well, whatever, if you guys want to learn it I'll teach, you, but later, If we don't hurry up, McGonagall will have our noses, literally."

The four girls grabbed their rucksacks and scrambled down the staircase, they were at the foot of the stairs when they heard a loud, bump and an "omphf." Lily reached the bottom of the staircase, and looked down at the heap by her feet. Apparently the boys were in a rush as well and Sirius had accidentally knocked over Demi, and they were both lying atop a huge pillow.

"I'm so sorry" said Demi, her eyes wide as she sat on the pillow trying to collect all her stuff that had fallen out of her hands when she collided with Sirius.

"Don't worry about it, it's not like we fell too far or anything, "said Sirius.

"Yes, but if it weren't for the pillow-" started Remus.

"Their heads would have been split open" finished Kiaria.

"Yeah, where did that come from anyway?" said James.

Lily looked at Demi who was still groveling on the floor picking up loose parchment, and saw that her face was red. Lily was tactful enough to pretend that she hadn't noticed, or Demi would be more embarrassed that she was when they were upstairs.

Sirius looked around at the parchment, quills and ink that had fallen when the two had collided, and said "you lot go on, I'll help her clean up, half of it is my fault anyway." The other seven went through the portrait hole, leaving only Demi and Sirius in the common room. He bent down and proceeded to help her clean up the room, he looked up at her and said, "You conjured that pillow didn't you?"

Demi looked up, her eyes wider than they normally would be. "Yeah, yeah I did" she said weakly.

"That's bloody brilliant!" Sirius exclaimed, smiling at Demi.

"You really think so?" she asked hesitantly. Normally wizards would laugh when they saw the small girl cast a spell or fix an object. Ever since she was 5 she'd always felt as though she was much more mature for her age, and had a lot more control over her abilities than other children did.

"Yeah, I do" said Sirius, "what's your name; I mean your full name?" he inquired.

"Demetria."

"And your surname?" he asked.

Demi looked at her watch and jumped up, hitting Sirius' nose in the process, "I'm sorry, again, but we'd better get going, otherwise we'll miss breakfast and out timetables." She grabbed Sirius' hand and they both ran out of the common room, and down the staircase, Demi's blue hair flying behind her.

They hurled down the last staircase and stopped at the front of the doors to catch their breath. "Er, you realize that we're still holding hands, right?" said Sirius pointedly.

"Oh, sorry" said Demitra and she quickly removed her hand from his, as if she had gotten burnt.

"s'okay, said Sirius, looking at the crescent-shaped marks left in his flesh by her nails.

With that the two swung open the doors and proceeded to join their friends at the Gryffindor table.

Once they had all finished breakfast, McGonagall approached them with their timetables. All of them had every class together. Unbeknown to them, Severus had the exact same classes as they did. He trudged down towards the Charms corridor, and heard Lily say, "Hold on, I've got to check something." He turned the corridor and lily, popped out from behind the wall. "What have you got right now" she said eagerly, holding out her timetable, so as to examine Severus'. He gave her his, and they soon became to feel as excited as they did on the train ride to the school. Lily squealed loudly, "this is going to be amazing, yeah sure, you're not in my house but that doesn't stop us from being in the same classes together. Lily linked arms with him, and steered him toward the classroom door.

"This is going to be more fun than I thought it would be" said Severus smiling.

Once they got inside, they sat down together and began to take out their wands and books. A couple of minutes passed and the door of the classroom swung open, and in came the tiniest man Lily had ever laid eyes on. He smiled at her as he passed by her desk, and reached a stack of books perched precariously by a high stand. He climbed said stack and began riffling through sheets of parchment, before pulling out a register. He then proceeded to squeak out the names of all the students in the class, and when he got to Demetria's name, he lowered the piece of paper gave her a smile, which she returned gladly. He then continued on and began to lecture the class on the different types of charms and how they are applied. The same behavior was seen in all of the first year's other classes, but it wasn't until Friday when something exciting happened in one of their classes. Up till now all they had done was take notes on the different types of spells and branches magic had.

"When a witch or wizard has to manipulate something, in order to receive what they need or want, they will often enough turn to charms to fix the problem. For example, let's say that I needed a ladder to get to a book, but I was unable to find one. What would I do?" he asked the class. No one said a word, except for Demi, who had mumbled an answer under her breath. Luckily for her, Professor Flitwick had placed a charm in the class so that he could hear what everyone was saying, even if it was a whisper. "Excuse me, Demetria, could you say that again for the rest of the class to hear?" he asked her politely.

"You could use a summoning charm or a levitation charm to retrieve the book from the shelf", she said quietly.

"Well done, ten points to Gryffindor" said Flitwick, happily, "I see the apple does not fall far from the tree" he added with a wink, causing Demi to cheeks to turn into a deep shade or crimson. He turned back to the class, "you could use either one, but a levitation charm would be more at your level. The incantation we will be practicing for the next couple of days is called the Wingardium Leviosa Charm. It will levitate anything you use it on. The incantation is quite simple to remember, 'Wingardium Leviosa.' The wrist movement used with this spell is called swish and flick. We will do some trials and then I will hand out feathers and we will try to levitate them."

The class began the trials and the wrist movements. Demi shifted nervously in her seat next to Sirius, who looked at her and said, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine" she smiled

"Why was Flitwick praising you? What tree did you fall from?" he asked curiously.

Demi was about to respond before Flitwick decided to stop the class and give them their feathers, thus buying her some time to think of a sob story. "Now," Flitwick started, "we will attempt to levitate these feather's as lighter object are easier to levitate than bulky ones. Also no one will get hurt by a feather. Do not worry if your feather does not levitate, you are beginners, and thus I will not expect anything too grand from you all," He smiled kindly. "If you need any help, just raise your hand."

Sirius turned back to Demi, who quickly shifted her focus on to her feather. She began to pray silently, _really? My last name? This is just great, Sirius is already on my case, oh and let's not forget my dorm mates. The less suspicion headed my way the better. Hopefully when I cast this charm it fails. Why did my only guardian have to be so powerful? _ She turned back to her feather, and purposely said either the words wrong, or did the wrist movement incorrectly. Everything was going great until Sirius caught her off guard.

"So, are you going to keep trying to avoid answering my question, or will you just tell me what your last name is?" he said pointedly.

"Well it's-" she began.

"Enough chitchat over there, and start practicing the charm you two" said Flitwick, wagging a finger at the pair.

Demi turned to her feather and absentmindedly muttered the spell and did the wrist movement, and she did them **correctly**. Her feather gently glided up towards the ceiling of the classroom, and everyone started her down. Flitwick, however, was in his element. "Look, look here everyone, Miss Dumbledore has done it" he beamed. Everyone in the classroom that was either half blood or pure blood gasped. She closed her eyes but that didn't stop her from hearing the other kids whispering to one another;

"She's a Dumbledore!" said one.

"She must be so powerful" said another.

"I thought he didn't have grandkids, or kinds for that matter" said one witch.

This continued for about a minute, until the bell signaling the end of the day struck. Demi grabbed her stuff and flew straight up to the Gryffindor dormitory, where she intended to stay until Monday. She sat on her bead, her face buried in her pillow mulling the day's events over in her head. She thought about the look of Sirius' face when Flitwick had announced her name, he looked somewhat amazed of kind of hurt. She was having a good time wallowing in her misery until the door of the room swung open. Lily, Alice and Kiaria were all standing around her bead looking at her until Lily said "How are you feeling?"

"Lousy" said Demi truthfully, "and a bit hungry" she added with a smile as she sat up.

They all smiled at her and Kiaria said, "Well that's great, because we snuck a whole plateful of food out of the Great Hall for you." She held up a plate piled high with roasted potatoes, vegetables, gravy and some shredded spinach and corn.

"Thanks a lot you guys, no one's ever cared this much about me before, at least no one that isn't related to me" she whispered. They all looked at each other and Demi got up and gave each of them a hug. They all sat own cross-legged on their own beds facing one another making small talk. Demi ate in silence, fearing when the dreaded question would be asked. But soon, Alice brought it up.

"Erm, Demi do you mind if I ask you a question?" she said.

"I can't say I wasn't expecting it, but go ahead" said Demi, her face gaunt.

"Well, if you're a Dumbledore, then how can you be, you know, your age and hair colour and what not?"

"Okay, I will answer this question but not right now, there are some other people that deserve to know the truth as well" she said, her mind on Sirius. "I won't explain it now because I only want to explain it once, but I promise I will answer your question tomorrow" she said, a tone of finality was evident in her voice.

Lily looked at her and said "we understand, just tell us when you want to tomorrow and we'll come to you" she smiled and Demi did the same, "for now, I think it would be best if we go to bed."

Demi sighed, "Well I can't deny that it has been a very tiring day."

They all began to laugh and curl up into bed. Demi lay beneath her sheets, and for once in her short eleven years of life, she fell asleep with a smile on her face.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The common room was filled with people the next morning. When all the girls were up and dressed, they began to climb town the spiral staircase. Upon reaching the bottom floor, a bunch of students, older than themselves threw questions at Demi. There were weird ones, like the rumor that she was a ghost, to ones that hit her close to home (maybe her parents don't want her?). Demi quickly climbed out of the portrait hole and slipped down the staircase to the Great Hall.

"Wait up Demi" said Lily, her face flushed from having to chase after her friend" we need to talk to you."

"I know but there's someone else I need to tell the truth to, and if I don't, then I would hate myself forever and so would they!" she said back. She vanished in to the Great Hall and came back five minutes later with a stack of toast in one hand, and a jug of milk in the other. She turned around and stuck her head back into the Great Hall and said to someone that they couldn't see "I don't care, just get him off his butt and meet us by the beech tree near the lake in 5 minutes, or I'll get him myself." Her head emerged and she turned to the group and said, "let's go to the lake, and eat, it's a lot more quiet and peaceful than it is in there. The four girls spun around and opened up the Great Oak doors and made their way to the tree that Demi was yelling about. They sat down in the grass and began to eat their toast in silence.

Lily looked at Demi. She looked at ease with herself, despite what happened yesterday. They were like that for a few more minutes until they heard he crunching of grass under feet and they whipped their heads around. Lily could not believe her eyes. James, Peter, Remus, and to her surprise Sirius were making their way towards them. James, peter and Remus seemed confused at why they were there, but the look on Sirius' face told Lily all she needed to know about the situation. _Maybe Demi needs to tell him that she's sorry? But maybe there's the chance that . . . oh my goodness! Sirius is the person that she had to apologize to!_ Lily turned to Demi, about to confirm her suspicions, but Demi had gotten up and walked over to the four boys.

"Hey guys" she said smiling.

"Hi" said James, Peter and Remus. Sirius had just stood at the back of the group with is head down and mumbled a just audible "'lo"

"Okay, then. I just wanted everyone that I think that ought to know the truth here, this way I only have to tell the story once, and you guys all know that each of you, you know, know the truth. What I'm about to tell you cannot leave this little group or I will never talk to you again. Understood?" she asked.

Everyone looked at the thin, scrawny girl, but they could tell by her face that she was dead serious. "Okay" was said by everyone as they each sat down and made themselves comfortable.

"The story is a little long and I'll answer any questions you have at the end, alright?" everyone nodded their heads. "Okay, here we go. When I was a baby, my parents, from what Professor Dumbledore told me were dead. I don't know how or why, he just told me and I believed him. Before he found me I was alone, in London, wandering the streets, stealing food, using magic (I couldn't control it back then), and basically trying to survive. Now, when I was about 4, Dumbledore found me on Christmas, trying to get away from some street dogs. I used magic and, you know apparated." Seeing the look on Lily, Peter, and Remus' face, she added "it means I transported from one place to another. I was a kid and I didn't have much power so I managed to apparate just to the top of some tall bins. Dumbledore saw this and he took me away from London, he brought me here. To Hogwarts. He explained to me that I was a witch. Of course, growing up on the streets, I didn't know about muggles or their fear of magic. He explained the entire world of magic to me. Of course, he couldn't just toss me to another wizarding family, not many would be so keen to take a filthy child that could neither read nor write into their house. I also needed to be treated at the time, you know medically, to make sure I was healthy and didn't have any diseases. He handed me over to Madame Trillium, the old matron. She declared me healthy and that was it. I didn't have a place to live, and no one wanted to take me in, so Professor Dumbledore kept me here in the castle. Throughout the summers I would stay here, with him, and in the school year I would stay with my uncle Aberforth, Dubledore's brother. When I would stay at the castle with Professor Dumbledore, he would teach me magic, you know, charms, potions, transfiguration, especially Defence against the Dark Arts, for this was when Voldemort (James, Sirius, Remus, Alice, Kiaria, and Peter shuddered) was roaming around and he was not so kind to stragglers like me. Aberforth taught me the basics throughout the rest of the year, like Maths, literature, art, that stuff. Then, when I turned eleven, Dumbledore sent me to Diagon Alley to get my school stuff. I had to wait for him to pick me up and I was taken by the Death Eaters. They took me hostage, because they thought Dumbledore would come rushing to save me, and they would be able to kill him. The trouble is, they only saw me as a little girl and didn't think to see if I was dangerous enough or magically gifted enough to save myself," she smiled at the memory.

"How can you be thinking about such a sad thing and still be happy?" asked Sirius.

"Well, back then I wasn't that scared, I knew how to get away. But the guarantee that I would manage to get away, that scared me. They did the usual stuff, you know, Cruciatus curse, Imperius curse, try to make me obey them, tried out experiments of their own making" she said simply.

"But how did you manage to get away from all that?" asked James, dumbfounded that someone his age had to fight all this.

"Well, Professor Dumbledore taught me how to fight of the Imperious, it just never occurred to him that they would use the Cruciatus curse on a child" she deadpanned.

"Wait" said Remus, "how long were you in there?"

"About a two, two and half months" she said. Everyone that knew of the war looked grave. "Continuing on, so I managed to confund the two Death Eaters that came to get me one day, and they helped me escape. Mind you I had to keep casting the spell, it was very weak. I managed to get back to Hogwarts and Madame Pomfrey came to patch me up, and I stayed here until school started this year."

"But you were on the train to Hogwarts?" asked Lily, "Why would you go on the train if you were already here?"

"Partly the tradition of going up to the school on the boats, partly the fact that the train ride seemed so cool and well, I had to do it, and then there was the fact that people would notice that I wasn't on the train, but lived here" she gestured towards the castle.

"Oh, I get it, "said Alice.

"You poor thing, I feel terrible" cooed Kiaria.

"I didn't tell you the story to gain sympathy from you all, and don't show me any. I managed to get away and I am safe, that's all that matters. I told you the story to clarify a few things, to come clean to all of you" she looked at everyone, her eyes lingered on Sirius for a little longer. "That's the end of that story, do you've any questions?" she asked politely.

Everyone shook their heads, and proceeded to go up to the castle. Demi decided to stay back for a while, she wanted to mull things over and make sure what she did was the right thing. The girls knew how she must be feeling and steered the boys over towards the entrance to the castle.

"That's it then?" she heard a voice say. She whipped her head around and saw Sirius standing under the beech tree, looking at her, "you've told us everything? Nothing more to add?" he asked her

She hesitated for a moment, _there was one thing, but Dumbledore had told her not to tell anyone_. She shook her head and said "no, that is all."

Sirius came a couple steps closer to her and said "I never really realized that you went through so much, and here I was giving you a hard time. I'm sorry, for everything" he held out a hand.

Demi smiled and instead, gave him a hug, which he returned. "Let's head back up to the castle" she said.

They both ran up the hill, and when they reached the doors, Sirius held them open for her. He looked back and the gardens and the lake, all displayed down the hill. He'd never really noticed how beautiful this place was.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The rest of the day passed smoothly. Well, if you don't count the entire student body whispering, gasping, and doing double takes as demi passed through the halls. In the end, she got tired and went to the dormitory with the rest of the girls. However, the boys were a bit preoccupied with . . . other things.

"D'you think there are any secret passageways in or out of the castle?" asked Sirius.

Remus face palmed, he knew where this was going. In the past week at school, Sirius had been trying to find ways to sneak out of the castle ever since they heard the fourth years telling the third years about the Hogsmeade visits. James, however, laughed "why, where do you need to go?" he joked.

"Well, I mean, Hogsmeade seems like a really cool place to go, and do you really want to miss out on Zonkos? Apparently the fourth years think it's hilarious. You know they've got everything a wizard needs to plank someone? You try not being tempted and see how it goes" he replied

"Well, Im pretty sure, you know, your friend could give you some tips" said Peter mischievously.

"Who are you-?" started Sirius.

"Isn't it obvious" said Remus, laughing at Sirius, "We're all under the assumption that you like Demi."

The four of them (Frank was in the library, finishing of his essay, as Peter kept on asking him for help, and Peter had explicitly stated that the library was the last place he'd ever want to visit) laughed gleefully at the look on Sirius' face. He had begun to blush and soon his face was as red as a tomato. "That's not how it is" he began, "we're just friends, and that's it."

"Relax, we're just messing around" said James, trying to calm his friend down.

"Oh, alright" mumbled Sirius, his face turning back to its usual color.

"Oi, it's quarter to six, we should be heading to the great Hall for dinner," said Remus, fiddling around with his watch.

They ran towards the hall and met Frank and Alice near the front of the tables. Lily and Demi had their heads bent down, discussing something in hushed tones. Remus went and sat down next to Kiaria, who looked bored at having no one to talk to. They all continued in this way, until Professor Dumbledore got up to deliver a speech; "Before we begin our magnificent feast, I would like to address some upcoming events. Tryouts for each houses' Quidditch teams will be held in due time, for more information look at the noticeboard in you common rooms. Furthermore, it has come to my attention that certain students are being, for lack of a better term, harassed by their peers, and I would urge those of you that are doing so to please leave these students alone. There is one final announcement I would like to make" Dumbledore said, looking somewhat solemn, "those of you that come from Wizarding households may know of the war that is being waged on our society. This morning, in Wistershire, four muggle families and one auror named Annabella Grim were killed by the Death Eaters." Muttering broke out throughout the Hall until Dumbledore managed to get everyone's attention and continued, "We would like to have a moment of silence for those lost to this senseless war." The entire Hall went quiet, except for certain people at the Slytherin table, whose faces shone with glee. Lily looked over at Severus, who gave her a look that read _it's them, not me. _She turned back towards Dumbledore who said, "let us dine."

Dinner ended on a high note, as Sirius "accidently" lit himself on fire with his ignited wand tip. Demi smiled as Sirius stood up in the space between the Gryffindor table and the Hufflepuff table and started to do a little jig to stop the flames. He pointed her wand at him, muttered a spell, and caused a gulf of freezing cold water to douse the flames. Sirius stood sopping in the middle of the hall, looking at Demi, who at the sight of Sirius' wet, matted hair, began to laugh. It was one of those laughs that causes everyone else to laugh. This continued until they got to the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed in. The first years stayed downstairs, crawled up on the little sofas, until the dormitory was empty. Lily had been dying to ask this question since the feast had ended, and now that she was alone with her friends and the other boys, she decided it was safe to ask, "What is the war about?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Well" started Demi, "let me check something." She got up and paced in front of the fire, and suddenly looked up at all her friends. "How many of you don't know that much about the war?" she asked.

Remus (he knew a little from what his parents had told him), Lily, Kiaria (who was half and half, and had only learned a little from her father) and Peter (who was a pureblood but had only learned a shred of what was going on) raised their hands. "So, I guess that just leaves a few of us. I only know as much as I've seen, or that Professor Dumbledore has explained to me. Okay, Sirius, James, Frank, and Alice add on anything that I may have missed or that you know."

She looked down and back up again and began;

"_It all started about 30 years ago, when a boy just like us came to this castle. No one really knew where he came from, he was an orphan, like myself. He came to this school, walked these very halls, and was taught in these very castles. His name was Tom Marvolo Riddle. Now, he was very bright, as smart a boy you could not find anywhere. His brain seemed to soak up everything he was taught. Throughout his seven years he began to gain some people, some friends. They followed him everywhere, did everything he told them to without question. Now, all the teachers thought he would become an Auror, a worker in the ministry, and perhaps, a future Minster for Magic." _Demi looked down, disgusted. She looked back up and continued. _"But, when the time came, he vanished. Just like that, off the face of the Earth forever. No one knew where he went. But a few year went by and he resurfaced again, this time, going by the name of Lord Voldemort (she ignored the shudders of the Wizard raised) , and his friends that he had made in school rallied around him and became his faithful soldiers, the Death Eaters. Now Voldemort (she ignored the shudders of the Wizard raised, again) came back to Hogwarts, and asked Professor Dumbledore for the position of the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor." _She noticed Sirius' mouth open, but she held her hand out to tell him to wait a moment. _"Professor Dumbledore, of course, declined the offer. After a few years, things got worse for everyone. Voldemort (she ignored the renewed shudders) began to kill people. He called in the Purge. He wanted to exterminate all those muggleborns (here she gestured towards Lily, who looked shocked) and half- breeds (she thought for a moment of someone she knew, and Remus paled at the sentence). Voldemort (more shuddering) convinced all manners of Dark creatures to fight for his cause. They, of course, saw a purpose and a benefit for themselves, and so they obliged. Now his Death Eaters kill innocent people that stand in the way of their master's goal, or just for fun. _She saw all of the wizard raised pale, but Lily shook her head, she didn't understand. _"Lily, imagine coming home for Christmas break, all excited to see your family. You get to the station and they aren't there. So, you catch a bus to get home. You turn down your street and look at what USED TO BE your family's home. Rubble, incinerated, annihilated, turned to dust. Your family is nothing but a pile of dead bodies, killed before they could even react. Killed because they were not magic. Killed because of Voldemort. That's what this war is, that's what is going on. Madness." _Demi finished and she sat down in the armchair, shaking. She could remember it, the entire time that she was locked up in that cellar, with Dementor's sucking her memory out of her bit by bit, losing who she was. She remembered the experiments they tested on her, the wounds were still so fresh in her mind. She hadn't noticed but she'd been getting paler and more fidgety as she remembered. Alice walked over and sat down next to Demi and covered her with a blanket. Demi looked at Alice and whispered, "thank you."

Lily looked over at Demi, and saw on her face, a look of terror, of fear. She knew her friend had suffered, but she didn't know to what extent. "Thank you, thank you for explaining everything to me. I'm sorry for making you relive all of that."

Demi smiled weakly and said, "I'm not reliving it, it's still happening right now" she lifted a finger and pointed towards the window that faced the sky of the Common room. "Every day, dark forces attempt to penetrate this castles walls, but as long as we have Dumbledore, we're safe, as long as we have him, we can't be hurt."

With that, the nine of them went to their rooms. They didn't know this but each of them lay awake mulling things over. By dawn, they had all come to the same conclusion, they were all being hunted.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The nine of them woke up early on Sunday morning and made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. They ate in silence as the conversation from yesterday was still fresh in their minds. Demi could tell that everyone was still a bit scared and upset after what she'd told them, so she decided that everyone needed some cheering up. "Oi, how about we roam around the castle, it's going to be empty anyway." She was right. The second years were all asleep because of the late night astronomy classes and everyone above third year had gone to Hogsmeade. They all brightened up at this, except for Lily, she hadn't spoken to Severus in ages, so she decided that she would catch up with him today. She began to tell Demi of her other plans until Sirius and James butted in.

"Oh, you mean Snivellus," said Sirius.

"What? Old Greasilla? Your friends with him?" laughed James rudely.

"Don't call him that" exclaimed Lily, "his name is Severus, and he is my best friend. Treat him with some respect" she said, disgusted. She stormed down the hall, towards the library where she knew Severus would be.

Demi watched her friend vanish down the hall, and turned back to face James and Sirius, "really? You guys have no manners whatsoever" she rounded on James, "you should know better. I mean, if someone is friends with someone you don't like, DEAL WITH IT. We're all stuck in this castle for 10 months, make the most of it." She heard Sirius laughing at James being scolded, so Demi turned until they were both face to face, "and you, stop making up stupid names for people, it's rude and idiotic. If you want to make up any type of nicknames make them up for yourselves," she pointed to the two of them. "Well, I've completely lost the mood to go out and do some exploring, and I've still got my arithmancy homework to finish," she said. "I'm going to go up to the common room to finish it, I'll see you lot at dinner."

"You're taking arithmany?" said Sirius, sounding both shocked and impressed. "my cousin Andromeda, showed me her old assignments during the summer, they looked horrible all you do is predict number things. Why do you want to inflict so much damage upon yourself" he asked dramatically, causing all of them to laugh.

"No, I understand arithmancy and I'm actually quite good at it. When Aberforth was teaching me, he was very pleased with my success. Then there's the fact that the subject is fun" she added, just to see the look of horror on Sirius' face.

"I've got some charms work I need to finish, do you think you could help me with it, Demi?" asked Alice.

"Of course" Demi smiled.

"Eh, I'll come as well, I've still got my potions essay to finish" said Kiaria. The three girls went up the stairs leaving just the four boys (Frank was with McGonagall doing detention after Sirius accidentally made him swear loudly in class). They looked at each other, and decided to use Demi's idea and roam the castle. They headed down to the dungeons, where they were chased off by some Slytherin first years, and then proceeded to make their way up to the third floor corridor, and were near the one-eyed witch statue. Sirius loved that statue, always commenting that it reminded him of his mother. The other three had never met Walburga Black and after hearing all the stories about her, they never wanted to. They were passing by, when Sirius decided to take out his wand and prod the hump, just to make sure it wasn't his mother in disguise. He came nearer and nearer, before jabbing it quickly, and stepping back. There was a noise, like stone scraping stone, and the boys looked at the statue in awe. Where Sirius had jabbed it, a square hole had formed. Sirius looked up with glee, "I knew there was a way out" he said.

"Yeah, but where does it go?" asked James.

"I'm pretty sure I can ask someone" Remus said, he looked at everyone's faces and said, "No they won't turn us in."

"Oh, okay then" said Peter, wiping his forehead.

"I wonder" said Sirius "if there are any more like this?"

"Only one way to find out mate" said James clapping Sirius' shoulder.

"Maybe we ought to close the hole, before we leave" said Remus.

"I hadn't thought of that" said Sirius, tapping the statue again, closing the door.

The four spent the next couple of hours before dinner tapping other statues.

**In another part of the castle. . . **

"How can you say that Severus, you barely know them?" said Lily, shaking her head.

"Well, all they've done so far is make fun of me" said Severus indignantly. "Stupid Potter" he muttered.

"Hey, stop calling people stupid Sev, I'm pretty sure he's only joking around. If it bothers you that much, I'll talk to them. If they still do it, I'll ask Demi to hex them." She said, making both of them laugh.

Severus was glad Lily had decided to come to talk to him, he'd really missed her company. He was glad that she was happy, and she had introduced him to her friends from Gryffindor the other day. She knew that he was not good at making friends, so she thought the best way was to introduce Severus to the people that she had become friends with. He liked a majority of them, Demi was really nice, Kiaria was very funny, and Alice was very friendly. The boys on the other hand were another story. That James Potter was very arrogant. Just the other day, he and his friend named Sirius had knocked over Severus' cauldron in potions causing him to break out into boils. Later, they had claimed it was by accident. Peter, was just plain stupid, and Severus never got on well with stupid people. Remus seemed smart and nice, but Severus decided that he hung out with James and Sirius too much.

"I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of one of those" replied Severus, smiling.

"Well it's nearly six and I have to go to the common room and put all these (she gestured to the books, parchment, quills, and ink) away" she stood up, gathered her belongings, said goodbye, and left.

Severus stayed behind for a couple of moments before packing his stuff and heading towards the Slytherin common room. He walked over to the door of the library before he was swarmed by a bunch of surly looking seventh years. One of them bent down to his level and said "don't mix in with the mudbloods kid, they ain't worth nothing. Keep your head down and join the Dark Lord when you're old enough. Trust me, these mudbloods won't be around much longer." He stood up and walked out, his friends trailing behind him. Severus stood there for a moment, trying to comprehend what had just happened. It took the bell signaling dinner to snap him out of his reverie, before he hurried away to the common room.

**In the Gryffindor common room . . .**

"I don't get it" said Kiaria, slamming her quill on the table with such frustration, that her ink bottle fell and smashed to the ground, causing the carpet and the side of the sofa to get splashed.

Demi waved her wand and said _Scrougify _siphoning the ink away. She looked over at Kiaria and said, "Don't worry, I'll explain it (again, she thought in her head) and we'll try it again when we've eaten from dinner, okay?" she asked.

"Okay" said Kiaria, looking out of the window. "It looks so pretty outside, too bad it's almost winter" she said quietly.

"Yeah, but you should see the castle in the winter, we have big Christmas trees, like twenty feet tall, covered in decorations, and the Great Hall is all winter-y. You're going to love it" said Demi, smiling.

"It' nearly six, we'd better put our stuff away and go downstairs" said Alice, glancing up at the gold, lion shaped clock on the far wall. The three girls were just finished tidying up when the portrait hole swung open, and they saw a tangled bush of red hair make its way inside.

"Lily, where were you?" asked Demi.

"Library with Severus" she replied as the four ran up to their dormitory to put their bags away. They ran back down and followed the swarm of Gryffindors down to the Great Hall. They were joined by the other five boys and they all sat down. James smiled at Lily, who smiled back. Little did she know, the smile was not going to last for long.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The next couple of months passed as they usually did. Attending classes, writing papers, doing homework, but in the last week of November something changed. The students were eating dinner, but something was going on. Lily looked across the table and saw James and Sirius with their heads together, talking under their breath. _Most likely one of their pranks_, Lily thought. Just the previous Wednesday, the four boys (James, Sirius, Peter and Remus) had developed a plan to turn Severus into a snake, when they realized that they had not acquired that level of knowledge. They then proceeded to ask Demi who accidently let slip that they would need to learn the fundamentals of Transfiguration to be able to transfigure a human. The boys then did something remarkable, they went to the library. This, of course, paired with the fact that they had a book and were reading it was too much on the girls. Demi had even asked them if they were jinxed, confunded, or imperiused. The next morning, the two boys directed their wands at Severus and muttered a series of incantations, causing his body to become a snake's, but with his head. He had to be taken to the hospital wing, and Lily had yelled at the two boys for over an hour before going to bed. Lily had also stopped talking to Demi, seeing as it was her who told them what they needed to do. James and Sirius got detention from McGonagall, who wasn't impressed, even though it was a remarkable piece of Transfiguration. Lily was snapped out of her dream by the sound of the two boys moving around.

"You got the plan?" said James.

"No, I've been listening to you repeat it for the past week for fun. Obviously I get the blinking plan," said Sirius sarcastically.

"When Snivellus gets up . . ." started James.

"I UNDERDSTAND THE BLOODY PLAN JAMES! I'M NOT STUPID!" exclaimed Sirius, standing up. He looked around at the hall, apparently everyone had gone quite after hearing his remark. Sirius went red in the face, and sat down. Everyone looked around and suddenly began to laugh. Sirius took note of this and decided to emerge from underneath the table, and looked up at the Headmaster, whose eyes shone with tears of laughter. Even Professor McGonagall's mouth looked less thin and slightly upturned at the corners. Sirius looked at his best mate, who was also laughing/crying as well, Sirius shrugged and joined in. The hall was in a light mood throughout dessert, as other houses looked at Sirius every minute or so, to see what else he would yell out. Dinner ended and the students made their way up to bed. The Gryffindors all went upstairs, except for the first years, who sat down in the plump scarlet sofas in the common room.

Lily rounded on James and said, "why do you both keep on making fun of Severus? What has he ever done to you?" she asked.

"Well," started James.

"He's a Slytherin, he's ugly, his hair is greasy, oh he loves Defence Against the Dark Arts, which is practically every mini-Death Eater's favourite class" said Sirius, ticking each reason off on his fingers.

"Come on Lily, look at who he hangs out with. A whole bunch of people that plan on becoming or are already Death Eaters" said James. "You remember the stories Demi told us, about what they do, especially to muggleborns" he said pointing to Lily.

"So, you think that Sev would hurt me?" said Lily.

"Yeah, yeah I do. He's creepy" said James, Sirius nodded his head.

"Your just being stupid and biased towards all Slytherins. I mean look at Sirius, all his family was in Slytherin, and you don't judge him?" she said angrily.

"Hey, they aren't my family" cried Sirius indignantly, causing the others to laugh.

"You're so prejudiced, and big headed, you disgust me" said Lily, and she turned on her heel and marched up the staircase.

"Go out with me Evans" yelled James. But all he got was a door slam. Everyone laughed at James' feeble attempt at trying to go out with Lily. He turned back and said "whatever, I'm going to sleep, goodnight" and he went to his room. The others stayed down for a few more minutes, and then made their way up to their own rooms too.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Well, it doesn't matter, you stood by and watched" said Lily, disgusted. She was standing with Remus and Demi who had their heads down in shame. Lily had been scolding them for the last half an hour about the prank that James and Sirius had pulled on Severus during dinner. The two boys managed to slip a piece of pie that had been laced with a volubolis potion. The result was a high pitched, angry Severus who stalked out of the hall after ten minutes of ridicule from his peer. Lily had followed him to the Slytherin common room, where he demanded to know who had come up with the idea. Lily had told him she would find out and tell him as soon as she could. Little did she know that it was indeed Sirius and James that had pulled the prank, but Demi and Remus who had conceived the idea. " I thought you both were friends with Severus?" asked Lily.

"We are, believe me Lily I have nothing against him. Honest" said Demi, trying to console her friend who was close to hysterics.

"Lily, I am serious-" started Remus.

"Actually, contrary to popular belief I am the real Sirius, Remus. Come up with you own name" Sirius said as-a-matter-of-factly, causing everyone in the common room to laugh. The laugher died out as everyone saw the look on Lily's face.

"Shut up Black. Anyway, you two are going to go and apologize to him, RIGHT NOW" demanded Lily.

"But it's nearly curfew-" started Demi.

"We can't just leave, it'll have to wait till tomorrow" said Remus.

"Nonsense" said Lily, shooing them towards the portrait door, "go there quickly and come back quickly, it'll only take 20 minutes and my watch says you have ample time." And with that, the two were thrown out into the corridor and decided they had no choice but to make their way down to the dungeons.

"Do you know where the Slytherin common room is?" asked Remus.

"Yes, I do" said Demi, and she started off at a brisk pace, causing Remus to run after her.

"How do you-?" began Remus.

"I'm stuck in the castle for two months, each year with absolutely nothing to do. I get bored sometimes so I walk around the castle, and find new places" she said simply.

"Have you ever found any passageways in or out of the castle?" asked Remus, conversationally.

"Yeah, so far I've found three" she said, "why do you ask?"

"Well, Sirius, James, Peter and I found one a couple of weeks ago, but we forgot to ask you about it."

"Where is it located?" asked Demi.

"One-eyed witch's statue, in the charms corridor."

"I found that one last summer, went through it at night and ended up in Honeydukes." She smiled at the memory.

"What about the others?" asked Remus.

"Well I'm not going to tell you. That completely defeats the purpose of them being secret passageways. It's also a lot of fun when you find them yourselves," she said.

They turned down a corridor and ended up in front of a wall in the dungeons. Demi waved her wand over it and bent down to look at the wall, "aha, I got it" she said, knocking on the wall.

Remus looked at her and though she was crazy. Then, all of a sudden the wall swung open and a student with long, silvery blond hair stepped in front of them. "Who are you?" he asked rudely. 

"I'm Demetria and this, is Remus. We've come to see Severus" she said.

The boy laughed loudly before asking, "Blood status?"

"What?" said Demi, shocked and offended.

"Well, stupid girl, I asked for your Blood Status. Would you like me to repeat it again so your brain can comprehend it?" he laughed. Demi was about to tell this boy where he can stick his question before another girl walked by. She had long sheets of blond hair and blue eyes.

"Come now, Lucius" she said in a clear, cold voice "they're only first years, who cares about what they want." She rested a hand on his shoulder and he looked back at the other two before, slamming the door shut in their faces.

"Well, that was disturbing" said Demi conversationally, as they walked back to Gryffindor tower. Remus laughed.

They got back to the tower and climbed into the common room. It was only a second before Lily ran towards them and asked, "Did you apologize?" she asked.

"Well," started Remus, and they told her the whole story.

"And then some blond haired, blue eyed ghost walks by and charms him. So he shut the door in our face," finished Demi, leaning back into the couch. She looked over at Sirius who had his head in his hands. "What's wrong Sirius?" she asked.

"That girl that you mentioned, she's my cousin Narcissa Black" deadpanned Sirius.

"Oh, well she had a nice smile" said Demi, trying clarify her mistake.

"Nah, she's ugly. But at least you've gotten a taste of what my family is like. Mind you, her eldest sister Bellatrix, she is pure crazy. She joined the Death Eaters" said Sirius.

"WHAT?" said all the first-years.

"Don't worry about it, it's not like I'm fond of her" he laughed, making them all laugh.

They all headed up to bed. Many of them drifted off to sleep, while Sirius lay awake the entire night wondering if he'd end up like Bellatrix too.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Winter came, bringing in snow, rain, and -30°C temperatures the castle was freezing, but soon the caretaker Mr. Filch got off of his lazy arse and decided to stoke the fireplaces in the hallways and classrooms. Another thing was also brought with the cold temperatures, something that could been seen, heard and felt. . . CHRISTMAS! Naturally, everyone was excited (including the Slytherins) but none were more excited than one character in particular.

"Whoop, it's Christmas, yeah" shouted Sirius from one side of the common room to the other. All of the elder Gryffindor students found the first years excitement very amusing. Everyone was in the spirit, even Demi.

"This is going to be amazing" she said one night, while the others were finishing their homework. "It's going to be the first time where I actually have people here for my birthday. People I like," she added as an afterthought.

"Wait, it's your birthday?" asked Sirius, "how old are you?'

"Well, I don't know if it's my actual birthday, that's just the day that Dumbledore found me and I never got my letter especially on my birthday. So, seeing as my 'birthday' is in the middle of the year, I had to wait until this year to come to Hogwarts, otherwise I would have been too young," she summed up.

"Makes sense" said Remus.

"When are you guys born?" asked Frank.

"Why?" said James suspiciously.

"Well this way, we know when everyone's birthday is, and it doesn't come as, you know, a surprise" he said, looked at Demi.

"He's right" said Lily, as she pulled out a piece of parchment, "let's write down everyone's birthday and then I'll rewrite it for everyone, so we all have a copy." Everyone nodded in agreement. "Okay, so Demi's, birthday is on December 25th. When's yours Frank?"

"May 17th" he replied.

"Alice" inquired Lily.

Alice laughed loudly, causing everyone to jump." This is too funny," she said between gasps of air. "My birthday is on May 16th" she said, making everyone else laugh.

"Okay" said Lily between giggles, "When's your birthday Kiaria?"

"January 29th" she said.

"Sirius?"

"August 28th" he said.

"Remus?"

"March 10th" he said.

"Peter?"

"June 22nd right in the middle of exams" he sighed, causing everyone to laugh.

"James?"

"March 27th" he said.

"Wow, I'm older than you" said Lily, causing James to jump out of his seat.

"No way, when's yours?" he asked urgently.

"January 30th" she smirked.

"Damn it" he said falling back on to his chair, covering his face with his hands.

"Oh, and Severus' birthday is on the 9th of January" she said finishing off the list with a flourish.

James and Sirius groaned, "Why did you have to write his birthday on here" said James, pointing at the scroll in disgust.

"Because we are writing down everyone that we are friends with birthdays" she said smiling. "It's annoying that I've to write all of these over again nine more times" (she planned on giving a copy to Severus as well).

"No you don't, we can just duplicate it" Demi said, looking at everyone's dumbfounded expressions. She took the scroll form Lily and pointed at it, "_geminio maxima_" she said, and suddenly there was another nine copies, sitting next to the tenth. She handed one to each of the Gryffindor's and gave two to Lily, "Give one to Severus when you see him."

"Okay" said Lily brightly. They each put their scrolls away and continued to work in peace.

"Oi, demi, can I see you History of Magic essay, please?" begged Sirius.

"No, how will you learn if you don't do your work yourselves?" she said, smiling.

"Please? I only need another 2 inches, and it's just the conclusion. You know how much Binns loves his conclusions and an exact length essay."

"Fine" she said, fishing it out of her rucksack and handing it over to Sirius. She felt sad, she had really enjoyed watching Sirius beg and plead for her help, it changed the monotony nicely.

"you're my favourite" he said coming around the table and hugging her.

"Aw, thank you. Give it to Lily to give to me when she goes to bed, I'm going right now, I'm really exhausted" she said, packing her stuff away and heading up the stairs, "goodnight" she called back.

"Goodnight" said the others.

One by one they all finished their work until they were just sitting there aimlessly. Lily sighed and said, "It must be horrible, knowing so much, but knowing so little."

"huh" said Sirius, Peter, and James.

"Well, look at poor Demi" Kiaria said. "She doesn't know her own parents, or her own birthday, or even her own name (Demi had told them that Dumbledore had named her when he found her)."

"She had to be subject to torture and experiments by the Death Eaters" said Remus softly.

"She's been through a lot" said Frank, "goes to show you, she's a tough one."

"Yeah she is" said Alice.

"She's been through more than any of us can imagine" said James.

"She's amazing, true warrior" said Peter.

"She deserves a grand party for her birthday," said Sirius, making everyone turn and look at him. "You all heard what she said, she hasn't ever ad a birthday with her _friends_. That means us guys. I think we owe it to her to give her the best birthday she'll ever have. Ever." They all agreed, and began to discuss ideas, putting pieces together, and seeing what kind of things she'd love and she'd hate. They came up with a plan, but if I told you it, it wouldn't be much of a surprise, now would it?

**Keep reviewing if you want more of the story, I won't post up the next chapter until I have up to 5 reviews.**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**It is 5 minutes to 12 pm.**

The first years were sitting in silence, all bubbling with excitement. They only had to wait five more minutes, just five more minutes till freedom. No one was paying any attention to a word Professor Slughorn was saying, save for Lily and Severus. They hung on to each word, scrambling to write it down. Paying no attention to the clock on the wall.

_Two more minutes_, thought Sirius, _two more minutes until absolute freedom, doing everything he ever wanted to do in the castle but never had time for. He felt a little sad, though. He decided to stay at Hogwarts for the break, as did the rest of his friends. He couldn't bear the grilling he'd get one he got home. Disappointment rang in his head, knowing what his parents would think of him. The useless son that had no respect for his family's pureblood status_.

_One more minute,_ thought Demi_. Nearly 12 o clock, almost there. Maybe I can charm it to move faster, out that will only more this clock, not the other ones in the school. I'm turning 12, I have all my friends here, they know all about me, and I might even get some birthday presents this year( Professor Dumbledore had always brought her books and what not, and Aberforth had gotten her first pet, a snowy owl, which she loved dearly._ She was waiting and waiting. _Nearly there, nearly there._

Suddenly the loud clang of the bell was heard and the students (for they had already packed ten minutes before the lesson had ended) shot out of the doorway to lunch, yelling and screaming. Professor Slughorn smiled at all of them as they ran out of his class and said, "Merry Christmas to those of you who are not staying with us, and a wonderful new year as well." He looked towards the ten first years (for Severus was still in the class as well) and said, "My, my, Miss Evans your potions were splendid this term, as were yours Mr Snape and Miss Dumbledore. Please feel free to stop by, and don't be surprised if you happen to get an invitation to one of my dinner parties." They all smiled at the teacher as they passed him by and said goodbye. They reached the Great Hall and began to go to their own tables.

"Hey Sev, I forgot to give you this" said Lily reaching into her bag to pull out a scroll of parchment. It has everyone's birth dates on it, so you don't forget, they all have a copy too", she gestured to her friends in Gryffindor.

Severus pulled open the parchment and say the first few names, it wasn't until he saw the third last one when he said, "You put James Potter on the list" he said in disgust, "he's not even our friend."

"He may not be our dearest friend but we can't just leave him out" she said.

"Fine, I'm going to the library later, want to come?" he asked hopefully.

"Sorry, a lot of us have to write letters to our family to send them the gifts that we're giving one another. Oh, by the way, we're having a meeting to plan out Demi's surprise birthday party" she whispered.

"Okay, where should I meet you?" asked Severus.

"On the fourth floor, by that huge opal mirror in the corridor, you'll see us standing there" she said.

"Wait-'us'" he inquired.

"Well James and Sirius are her friends too, so we owe it to her to include them in the meeting as well, especially Sirius, he came up with the idea" she added as an afterthought.

"Fine, see you there" said Severus grudgingly.

**2:45 pm**

"Guys, I think I'm going to go up to take a nap, all this Transfiguration stuff has got me really wiped out" said Demi, walking towards the girl's staircase.

"Okay, we'll wake you up before dinner" said Kiaria, watching her walk up the stairs. They had all been doing their work and knew that transfiguration always made Demi sleepy, so they made sure to make her do that homework first.

"We should probably get going, or we'll be late to meet Severus" said Alice. They all got up and headed to the portrait door, before Lily looked back at a seventh year and said," excuse me? Do you mind doing me a favour, um?" she did not know his names.

"The name's Fabian Prewett, nice to meet you" he held out a hand.

Sirius jumped in between them both, "Nice to meet you, Sirius Black. Do you mind making sure that our friend with the blue hair doesn't wake up and start asking for us? We're planning something for her birthday, and we don't want her to know about it" he said.

"Alright, I got it. By the way, I think it would have been more prudent to ask a girl to keep an eye out on your friend" she said with a wink. "But I'll let everyone in the common room know, that way we're all in on it and can keep an eye put, alright?" he said.

"I like the way your brain works, Fabian" said Sirius, "Thanks again, " and with that he stepped out of the portrait hole to join the others.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

They ran to the fourth floor in such a rush, that they nearly collided with Severus, who had been waiting there for 10 minutes. "Why are we standing by this mirror" he asked, eyeing the floor length opal mirror, with its filigree detailing.

"We're going to use it to hold our meetings for Demi's birthday," said Lily. She pushed past him and tapped the mirror, "_retego"_ she said, and the mirror swung open, as if it were on an invisible hinge. Severus stood there with his mouth open, "Come on" said Lily, grabbing his arm and dragging him into the little hall. They all went in one by one, with James closing the mirror behind him. They kept on walking for at least 5 minutes before they came to a large opening, the size of the Gryffindor common room." Wow" said Lily, stepping into the chamber.

"We'll need more light," said Alice, "Otherwise we won't be able to see anything that's being written."

Severus stepped towards a bracket on the wall, pulled out his wand and said, "_incendio." _Flames shot out from the tip of his wand and ignited the torch. There must have been some spell because all the other torches in the room caught fire as well.

They all sat around in a circle, making themselves comfortable. "Now it's time to get down to business," said Lily, causing the wizard born to raise their eyebrows, "Muggle saying" she said, pulling out some parchment, ink and quills from her bag. "Okay, let's come up with a list of things we are going to need for the party."

"Food" said Sirius, causing all the Gryffindors to laugh.

"Of course you would be the first to say that" said Remus, laughing.

"Yeah, with the amount that he eats" added James with a snort.

"Correction. Inhales. The amount that he inhales" replied Peter, causing them to al laugh harder.

"Well excuse me for wanting people to have a full stomach at a party" said Sirius, acting offended.

"Okay," said Kiaria, still laughing, "What kind of food?"

"Well" started Sirius, "Cake, a birthday cake. Chocolate filling seeing as she loves chocolate. Oh, and blue because that's her favourite colour", he added as an afterthought. He looked around him, everyone sat there open-mouthed. "What?" he asked.

"How do you know that she loves chocolate? I don't even know that?" said Kiaria.

"And that blue is her favourite colour? She's never mentioned it to me before" said Alice, wiggling her eyebrows at Sirius, who had now gone red in the face.

"Well, if you want to throw a person an amazing birthday party, then obviously you would want to know as much about them as possible" said Sirius, in an obvious sort of way.

"Whatever" said James, a knowing look on his face.

"Okay, what else?" asked Lily.

"Er, she likes spicy food, lots of spicy food. She told me about this one time where she and Professor Dumbledore went to this Indian place and she had these spicy nachos," said Severus.

Everyone looked at one another, _did he know about Demi's past?_

Severus knew that this was what they were all thinking so he said loudly, "Yes she told me about her past, so I know about her excursions with Professor Dumbledore."

"She told you?" said Sirius.

"Yes Black, as a matter of fact she did. You're not her only friend" spat Severus.

"What are nachos?" inquired James.

"Okay, back to the party, guys" said Kiara, putting a hand on Severus' shoulder. "She loves that raspberry punch stuff, the really red one."

"Okay, now that we've got food down, what about gifts. I think we each ought to know what we're giving her, that way our gifts aren't the same. I'll go first, I'm getting her these warm, brown moccasins. She's always complimenting me on mine."

"I'm getting her a book about Greek and Roman mythology. She loves that stuff" said Severus.

"I'm getting her a broom servicing kit because she loves flying and she's got a broom, she just can't use it at Hogwarts, though" said James.

"I'm getting her a pair of penguin-printed pajamas for the winter, she was complaining that hers are getting faded and small" said Kiaria.

'I'm getting her a giant stuffed penguin" said Alice, "How about Kiaria, Lily and I wrap up our gifts together, seeing as their all kind of the same thing?"

"Sounds great" said the other two girls in unison.

"I'm getting her a bunch of candy I've ordered from Honeydukes. Chocolate Frogs, Berttie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans, Lemon Sherbert, the works" said Peter.

"Remus?" asked Lily

"Oh, I got her a book about spells. She was droning on and on yesterday about how much she loves those books" he laughed.

"What about you, Sirius? What are you getting her?" asked Lily.

"I can't tell you, but I promise it isn't the same as what you're getting her," he whispered.

"Okay" said Lily, brightly. "Now who is bringing what?"

"I'll take care of the cake" said Sirius.

"I'll take care of the nachos" said Severus.

"I'll take care of the punch" said Kiaria.

"I'll make sure we have candles for the cake" said Alice.

"Okay, that's it then. Except, where do we have the party?" asked Remus.

"That is a good question" responded Lily, "I guess . . . we can figure that out later" she said, looking thoughtful.

**I wonder where the party is going to be? What is Sirius going to give her? Comment below and type in your suggestions.**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The sun peaked over the mountain range around Hogwarts, causing the four feet of snow that had accumulated over the past five days to shimmer like crystal. There was snow piled up on the windowsill in the girl's dormitory. The first years were the only Gryffindor students that stayed at Hogwarts over the winter holidays (the boys and Severus, in the Slytherin dungeon common room), were there as well They were all asleep, but not for long. A sun ray hit a face buried under a tangle of blue curls. Demi woke up with a start. She looked around at the other three beds, where she could see her friends sleeping. _Whoa, it's only _she checked her clock_, 7 in the morning and I'm the first one up? That's ironic and funny_ she smiled to herself. She looked at the foot of her bed and saw, to her surprise, a present. She got up and towered over them, wondering why they were there._ Oh yeah, it's my birthday, _she thought with a pang of embarrassment. She walked over to the bathroom, shutting the door as quietly as she could.

A moment later, another girl with red hair woke up, and saw the empty bed in front of her,_ there is no way that Demi actually woke up_ she thought, smiling. She tiptoed over to the bathroom door and could hear her friend humming a Beatles song. She tiptoed around to Alice's bed and prodded her awake, "She's up" Lily whispered.

Alice nodded her head, "got it." She swung her legs off of her bed and woke her friend Kiaria, "She's up."

"Mhm, kay" said Kiaria, getting up and following the other two's lead. They pulled out all the gifts they had brought for one another and laid them out on their beds, patiently waiting for their friend to come out of the bathroom. Ten minutes later, Demi emerged with her hair up in a messy bun and wearing a longs sleeve green, navy blue, purple, and black checked shirt, with a pair of black stockings with thick knit purple socks and brown boots. She looked at all of them and opened up her mouth, only to get interrupted by them.

"Happy Birthday Demi" they all yelled.

She smiled at them, _wow they care about me a lot, _she thought. "Thanks guys. This means a lot to me," she said giving them each a hug. "Let's take these gifts downstairs and we'll open them there."

"But we'll have to carry them all down the stairs, and what if they fall?" said Kiaria.

"It's called magic, Kiaria" said Demi, shaking her head. She pointed her wand and said "_wingardium leviosa." _All the gifts floated in to the air and she levitated them down the staircase and over to the table in front of the common room fire. They waited a couple minutes and got settled until they heard a loud, thunderous noise emitting from the boys dormitory. They looked up at the staircase just in time to see the four (Frank went home for the holidays, but left his gift with Lily) Gryffindor boys carrying their presents down the staircase, their faces lit up with glee.

"Christmas time, the best day in the year. That and September 1st, the day I get away from my family" said Sirius wistfully, causing everyone to laugh.

"You can stay at my house for the summer, my parents wouldn't mind. Anyway, I don't have any siblings so it'll be fun having someone my age around the house for a change" said James, patting his best mates shoulder.

"Yes, best Christmas gift ever!" shouted Sirius, causing them to laugh even more.

"Okay," said Lily, "We ought to tell her about the thing." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"What thing" said Demi nervously, _did they know her secret?_

"We've taken the liberty to throw you a surprise party, just to show you how great friends we are, and for your birthday of course" said Remus.

_I'm safe, at least for now, _thought Demi. "Thanks you guys, is Severus coming too?" she asked.

"Yes, he is" said Alice.

"But where do we meet him? He can't come in here, he doesn't know the password?"

"We're going to grab the gifts and meet him on the fourth floor-" started Peter.

"Behind that floor length mirror in the corridor" finished Demi, smiling at the four boys, "so you did find another passageway out of the castle," she whispered in Sirius' ear.

"Huh" he said.

"I'll show you when we get there."

"Okay," he said loudly causing everyone to jump. "Let us go yonder."

"Er- that's not how you use the word" said James.

"I told Severus to meet us there at 7:45, and if we leave now, we'll be right on time. But how do we carry all the gifts, we can't levitate them all through the hallway, it won't fit?" she said.

"Hold on" said Demi, she waved her wand and said "_reducio._" They all watched as each of the gifts shrank to the size of a tennis ball. Demi picked up a giftbag and put everyone's gifts in there. "We'll go through it when we get to the party." She shouldered the bag, and they trekked out of the common room and down to the fourth floor. They reached the mirror, Demi waved her wand and said, _"retego." _They all hopped in and saw Severus sitting amidst a pile of presents as well.

"Happy birthday Demi," he said as he gave her some awkward type of one armed huge. "Merry Christmas everyone."

"Merry Christmas" responded the others.

Well, now that we've gotten all the formalities out of the way, let us get to the best part of his holiday season!" squealed Sirius.

"I didn't know his voice could go that high" whispered Demi to Remus, who nearly broke two ribs from trying not to laugh. She poured out the presents form the bag and muttered _"engorgio"_ and they all returned to their original size. "She picked each gift up and handed it to its recipient. When they were all ready, they tore off the paper of their own gifts. Demi waited until they were all done to open hers.

"Okay, now it's your turn Demi" said James.

She tore off the paper from a large package and saw a two books,one of which was entitled, "Magnus Liber Latine Fabularis" (The Great Book of Latin Mythology) and underneath it was another book entitled "Το μεγάλο βιβλίο της ελληνικής μυθολογίας" (The Great Book of Greek Mythology). "Thank you Severus, it's amazing" she got up and gave him a hug. She pulled out another, rather large package and found a broom servicing kit, from James. She tore open another box and found a rather large assortment of her favourite magical sweets from Peter. She pulled the lid off of a very big box and saw a warm pair of brown muggle moccasins, which she pulled on immediately, a pair of penguin printed pajamas, and a huge stuffed penguin animal with a zipper at the back for her personal belongings. She opened it up and saw a beautiful gold and red colored hairbrush. She got another book entitled "The Big Fat Book of Lies to Tell to Your Professors" courtesy of Remus. After hugging all of her friends in turn, she looked at Sirius, who gave her a piece of paper. She read it and looked back up nodding her head. She noticed the curious looks she was receiving from the others, so she ignited the tip of her wand, and burned the paper in to ash. "She looked around and said, "now what?"

The others smiled. Sirius looked at her and said, "Well you didn't think we were going to make you starve, now did you?"

"Um…"

Sirius, Kiaria, and Severus got up and left the room. They returned 10 minutes later with a huge blue cake with chocolate filling, a bowl of her favourite punch, and some nachos. She got up in shock. "No way" she squealed hugging the three of them.

Alice went and placed 13 candles on the cake, Severus lit them alight. "One, two, three;"

They all sang happy birthday to her while she laughed at their terrible singing, except for Sirius, who was rather good. She clapped at the end and blew out the candles, literally. They flew off of the cake and hit the wall on the other side of the room. She turned back to them, "Sorry" she said meekly.

They all laughed and with that they delved into the cake and the food. They, were of course, kids after all.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"I'm dying" spluttered Lily, red as her hair. She'd absent-mindedly picked up a crisp and didn't realize the amount of red chili powder, green chilies, and jalapeno peppers that were on it.

She choked and spluttered, until Demi, who expected this sort of thing to happen, poured out some cold milk, and gave it to Lily, who stopped fanning her mouth and relaxed. All the pure bloods looked at her oddly. "It's a muggle remedy I learned when I went to the restaurant with Professor Dumbledore. It helps the sting of spices."

The party carried on until noon, when everyone decided they would go up to their own dorms, pack their presents away and rets before the big feast in the Great Hall for dinner. They spilt up from Severus, and made their way back up to the empty Gryffindor tower. They all ran up and dumped their presents on their beds and ran back down to relax in the comfortable chairs while in each other's company. "That was amazing, thanks a lot guys, I really enjoyed it" said Demi from her spot in between Remus and Alice.

"Anytime" they all replied. They continued talking about their own gifts with Demi practicing some spells form the book Remus had brought her. They heard a loud pecking noise and saw a great tawny owl perched outside of the Gryffindor tower window. Demi pointed at the window and said _"ascendit" _and with a flick of her wand the window opened, letting the owl, as well as some cold air to come in. The owl circled around Sirius' head and dropped a bright red envelope in his lap before flying out of the window again. _"Descendit"_ Demi said, causing the window to shut once more. She walked over to Sirius who eyed the letter.

"It's from my mother and father" he said. The letter began to smoke and it shot up into the air until it was right in the middle of the group.

The flap shot open and a loud screaming voice of a female in distress came from within. "FAILURE SIRIUS BLACK, YOU ARE A FAILURE TO THIS FAMILY. DISHONOURING THE WISHES AND THE TRADIIONS OF THE BLACK HOUSEHOLD. HAVE OYU ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE? THIS FAMILY NAME, BESMIRCHED, AND YOU, A WORTHLESS GRYFFNEDOR. YOU BASTARD OF A SON, YOU PIECE OF SCUM. HOW I LOATHE THE DAY YOU WERE BORN. YOU ARE A FILTHY BLOODED CHILD AND WILL RECIVE NO MORE LOVE FROM NIETHER YOUR FATHER'S SIDE OF THE FAMILY, OR MINE. YOU ARE A DISGRACE!" With that, the letter burst into flames.

Sirius looked at the spot where the letter had been moments before, a tear on his cheek. Suddenly, he shot up and walked up the staircase to the boys dormitory. No one spoke for a few minutes until Demi walked up the stairs and into the boy's dormitory. She heard Sirius sniffling and gently knocked on the door, "May I come in?" she asked.

"Go away" came the reply.

Demi swung the door open and walked over to where Sirius sat, on the floor in front of his bed, his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking slightly. She sat down next to him and wrapped her arms around him. He removed his hands from his face and began to weep on her shoulder. She conjured up a tissue and gave it to him, she said "don't listen to them. You're a thousand times better than they are. Look at you, you're a bloody Gryffindor." He looked up at her his grey eyes shining with tears, and smiled." Where are they? In stinking Slytherin, with" she whispered in his ear, "Snivellus."

"Thanks, Demi. You're amazing," said Sirius, laughing. He got up and helped her up, giving her a hug. "I'm sorry for yelling at you before" he said, "I was-."

"Oh, save it. I understand" she said. "We should probably go down," she said checking James' clock, which read 5:50, "They must be waiting for us to go down to the feast."

"Yeah" he replied, "let's go."

And with that they went down the stairs to the others, and made their way to a magnificent feast with the staff and the remaining students


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

They calmly walked to the Great Hall, and pushed the doors open. They were shocked to see how big the hall really was without four tables. There was one table set in the middle many of the chairs that would have belonged to the faculty and Madam Pomfrey were empty as they were a bit late. The remaining students sat around the other length of the table. They sat down at the end of the table, next to the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. All of a sudden the Slytherins sitting across from them began to laugh, pointing at Sirius. One of the Slytherins stood up and said something that made them realize what was going on.

"Hey, Black. We heard you mum screaming at you all the way in the dungeons," he said.

Another girl, who looked like a pug, with a squashed up face stood up, "Guess she doesn't want you anymore, what did she say? You were a 'piece of scum'?" she said.

"Yeah, something like that" replied another, "I guess your blood isn't as pure as we all thought it was, if it were, you'd be here with us."

Lily looked down, she could see Sirius' nails cutting into the wood. He was about to stand up before Lily did. "Oi, you, pug-face girl." She said, causing the Slytherin girl that had jeered at Sirius to turn and look at her. "What happened to your face? It looks like it caught fire and someone tried to put it out with a hammer."

All the Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and the Gryffindors laughed with glee. She turned to the boy and was about to say something until she saw Demi get up from the other side of Sirius and say, "a sharp tongue is no indication of a keen mind. Just thought you ought to know."

A Slytherin got up and was about to say something before Sirius stood up and said, "careful now, don't let your brains go to your head."

Demi and Lily put their arms around his shoulders and he did the same to them. The Hufflepuff, Ravenclaws and Gryffindors stood up and did the same with the people next to them. Soon it looked like a game of red-rover with a table between the two sides. Demi said loudly to the tall Hufflepuff boy next to her, "It's just like I had diagnosed." She turned back to the Slytherins and said, "I am sorry to inform you that you all have severe diarrhea of the mouth, yet austere constipation of intelligence."

There was a moment of silence to let her words sink in. Then, all of a sudden, the entire Hall erupted around them as the students began to yell and scream. The teachers entered and looked upon the students, shaking their heads and smiling. Professor Sinistra lowered her glasses and said, "It's just like my family."

Professor Dumbledore pointed his wand to his throat and said"_sonoro_us. Let us all be quiet and dine together, without mayhem, shall we?" The students turned and looked at him, before lowering their heads and apologizing for their behavior (except for the Slytherins, who thought they were perfectly justified for their actions). They all remained standing until the Professors sat down. They all returned to their seats and ate quietly, the odd conversation here or there. Once they had eaten enough, they began to hold small conversations. Soon, one by one, they began to trickle back into their dormitories to sleep, or converse in comfort. The Gryffindor's headed up to their common room and began to sleep. It was almost 11:40 when Demi realized that she had to go back to the common room, like Sirius' note had instructed her to do so. She pulled on her dressing gown, and scrambled down the staircase, to the now darkening common room. She could see the ambers of firewood slowly getting smaller in the fireplace. She settled down on the three-seater and waited. After a few minutes she heard someone walking down the steps of the boy's staircase, and turned around just in time to see Sirius walk towards her with a thin, rectangular package wrapped in red paper, with a gold ribbon. He handed it to her and said, "Happy birthday Demi. I'm really glad to have you around and I hope that this gift shows that."

She pulled the ribbon off and tore open the paper. On her lap, was a thick, red and gold leather-bound photo album. She opened it and saw various pictures of the things she and her friends had done the past couple of months. As she flipped through she saw moments as though they were a window back in time. She saw the sorting, the day at the beech tree, her face when Professor Flitwick had announced her last name, and so on. It went all the way through to today's events in the Great Hall. While looking at this picture. She began to lean forward and she grabbed Sirius' hand. The photo was sucking her into it. They fell in and slowed down before hitting the ground and were turned upright. She and Sirius held hands and began to wander around the scene, which was occurring before their very eyes. The photo had taken them back in time to the party behind the mirror. Demi saw the events occur exactly as they did hours before. No one noticed them wandering around. She saw herself ripping open the packages, and receiving Sirius' note. She looked up at what should have been the roof of the room, and saw the small rectangular opening of where they had fallen in. She and Sirius began to flat upwards and soon found themselves on the sofa once more. Demi turned towards him, her eyes full of tears, "Thank you. Thank you so much Sirius. I've never had someone care this much about me," she hugged him tightly. "How did you manage to do all of that" she said as she pulled away from him, wiping her tears on the sleeve of her new pajamas.

"I went to the library and looked it up in some books. Then I asked Professor Dumbledore if he would help me with the spells. It took this long because I wanted to include all of today's events as well. It's enchanted, you know. If you every have a memory, or something happens that you want to record, it'll just show up in the album once you think of it," he smiled.

"Thanks again, I'm glad I waited, this is the best gift ever," Demi sniffed.

"You're welcome, now we'd better get to bed or we won't be able to wake up in the morning," he said standing up.

"Very wise," replied Demi, taking the hand Sirius had offered her. He walked her up to the girls dormitory staircase and watched her go up, she turned back and said, "Goodnight, Sirius," before shutting the door to the dormitory.

"Goodnight" said Sirius, walking over to the boy's staircase. They both fell asleep minutes after their head hit their pillows.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

It was nearing the end of the holidays, and the rest of the students that had been away arrived in the morning, unpacking and discussing their Christmas holidays. The students were dreading the start of the new term. However, certain people were taking it hard.

"No." The eight first years were sitting by the fire, finishing off the last of their homework. They looked up and saw Lily running towards them, a calendar in one hand, and a pen in the other. "Look at this. Look!" she screamed at the others, waving the calendar in their faces.

"Not to be insensitive, but we can't really read the bloody calendar. You're waving it around, you see," said Sirius.

Lily smacked him over the head with the calendar, "don't you see" she asked, sinking to the floor hopelessly.

"Er, see what exactly?" said James, scratching his head.

"We only have 6 more months till exams!" Lily cried burying her head in her hands, she mumbled something inaudible to the group.

"Huh?" said Peter, staring at her as though she had lost her mind.

"She said, 'I'm going to fail,'" said Alice, patting Lily's back.

"How did you make that out?" said Remus, shocked.

"She said it very clearly," smiled Kiaria.

"No, I couldn't make out a word of what she said," laughed Frank.

"Are you-?" started Demi.

"It's probably one of those 'things men will never understand about women' things, you lot need to write a book" said Sirius, pointing at the girls.

"Whatever" said Demi, rolling her eyes at Sirius. "Lily, you've aced every test we've been given so far, you can't possibly be thinking that you won't pass."

Lily moved her hands away from her face, 'Severus said that the teachers favor certain students."

Everyone laughed out loud, "Yeah, but you are every teacher's favorite student" said Frank.

"Tu chez" said Sirius, causing everyone to stop and look at him oddly. "Oh, I can speak French," he said.

"Okay, what does 'Je m'appelle coup de tête' mean?" said Demi.

"It means 'my name is butthead'," said Sirius laughing, "I didn't know yu could speak French."

"Oh, I learned a lot of different languages with Professor Dumbledore" said Demi shyly.

"Like?" said Peter.

"English, French, Italian, Russian, Greek, Latin, Mermish, Finnish, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, American, Polish, Norwegian, Bulgarian, German, Welsh, Spanish, Gobbledegook and Vietnamese," she exhaled.

Everyone stared at her. "What?" she asked.

Lily burst out laughing, "What on earth is 'Gobbledegook'?" she said.

"Goblin" said Demi slowly.

"And Mermish?" said Remus, between his hands.

"Like, merpeople" said Demi in the same tone.

"You've got skills Dumbles" said Sirius, giving her a high five.

"That's not my last name Grey," said Demi, causing anyone who heard to laugh.

"Oh, I think you've got the wrong shade," said Sirius. _Damn, she's good! _He thought later on that night while going to sleep.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The holidays were over, and of course, everyone was still in the holiday mood Spells were being forgotten, assignments were being graded (some were done very poorly), and of course, Severus' birthday was right around the corner. The girls all had ideas of what to do for him, especially Lily who announced her idea in the library while she was working with Slice, Kiaria, and Demi. "Oh, we should have a surprise birthday party for him! Kind of like we did yours, but not too much of the same thing," said Lily, jumping to her feet, squealing.

"Okay, but we're going to have to plan it out. What about the guys, surely Severus would want there to be some guys there," said Demi.

"True. I'll ask them," she said.

**Later that day . . . . . **

They were all sitting in the common room, Demi absorbed in the Greek Mythology book Severus had gotten her, Remus and James playing chess, Peter doing tomorrows homework at the last minute usual, Frank had gotten injured (again), Kiaria and Alice upstairs sleeping. Lily just remembered what she had to tell the boys before they went to bed. "Hey, you lot! I need to talk to you."

James whipped his head around, and was practically at her feet before saying, "Yes, what is it Lily? You've my undivided attention." Sirius, Remus and Peter exchanged looks behind their friends back.

Lily looked down and James, and raised her eyebrow. Deciding not to question Jams' abnormal behavior, she turned back to the other three boys, "Sev's birthday is coming up in two days, and we are going to surprise him. He's never had many people care about him before."

The boys laughed, "Oh, she thinks we care about Snivellus" laughed Sirius, tears coming out of his eyes as he rolled around on the floor laughing.

"I can't come, my mother is sick and Dumbledore is going to let me visit her on the 7th. I'm sorry Lily, but tell him I said Happy Birthday, and I'll give you my card so you can give it to him," said Remus.

Lily looked at him questioningly. She'd noticed how pale and distressed he had become, and he had some bad scratches on his face from the last time he had gone home. The others asked him about it, but after so many rejections on the topic, they had let it lie.

"That's fine Remus," Lily said turning away from him. "You three better be on your best behavior, and get the boy a card, or I'll ask Demi to hex you. She was just telling me about the bat Bogey Charm she learned." All three boys gulped and nodded their heads nervously. Lily turned her back on them and followed went up to the girl's dormitory to check on the others. She hadn't noticed but after her remark on the Bat Bogey Hex, Demi had gone upstairs. She watched as her friend lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling, muttering to herself. "What's up?" said Lily, sitting on the end of Demi's bed.

Demi sat up straight, her eyes a dark red color, "why am I always the enforcer? Why does everyone threaten each other using me? I'm not an object!" she said, jumping off her bed and going back down to the common room. Lily went after her, but by the time she'd gotten downstairs Demi had gone.

Lily walked over to the four boys and asked, "Did you guys see Demi leave?"

"Huh" replied the boys.

"She stormed out of the dormitory, and she prceeded to tell them about what had happened.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"Any questions?" asked Professor McGonagall. She looked out at her students. Many of them still scribbling down the last few sentences of what she had just said. A loud noise from the back of the classroom caught her attention, "Black, Potter, what on earth are you doing?" she cried. Sirius had accidently transfigured James' seat from a stool with four legs, to a spider with eight legs. The shock had caused James to fall on the floor, and the spider to wreak havoc on the entire back row. Professor McGonagall whipped out her wand and restored the stool to its original state. She looked at Sirius, who ginned maniacally back. _If only I knew teaching would be this hard, _she thought. The bell rang, signaling the end of the day. Sirius and James attempted to blend into the swarm of students headed towards the door, but McGonagall simply called them back. "Now, this type of behavior is unacceptable, and I will not stand for it again. Ten point from Gryffindor, each." She strolled out of the classroom, leaving James ad Sirius looking at one another.

The next morning was, to put it mildly, interesting. "Okay" said Lily, nearly jumping on Peter as she ran to the portrait door, "Sev is going to meet us by the library, and we'll give him his presents there. Everyone looked okay with the plan, if you don't count James and Sirius.

"Why do we have to go?" whined Sirius, looking at Lily.

"He's not even our friend" said James.

"Yeah, I never thought of that, he's your friend Lily" said Sirius.

"Well too bad, you guys are going to try to get along, that way we can all be together," she said, stalking out of the room.

Demi smiled weakly at the two boys who were eyeing the floor, "I know you don't like him, but at the end of the day, I'll try to make sure that we don't have to stay for too long. Just 10 minutes. Maximum, I swear."

"Fine" they both grunted and hurried along after Lily to the library.

Severus had been waiting for about 5 minutes until he saw Lily walking towards him with a box in her hands, "Happy Birthday, Sev" she cried giving him a big hug.

He looked around and said "where are the others?"

"They should be here in a minute" said Lily smiling.

Two seconds later he saw the rest of the first year Gryffindors, besides Remus, who had vanished about two days ago to see his mum. Sirius and James shook his hand and gave him Remus' card and their own. Severus didn't notice the weight of James and Sirius' card and opened it up. A huge 'BANG' was heard ad Severus was completely submerged in black smoke, which began to clear. Lily waved the smoke out of her eyes and was shocked. The boys had charmed the letter to spew out copious amounts of thick, green goop on Severus. She looked at them outraged, "You two are completely foul," she screamed. She grabbed Severus' hand and led him out of the corridor.

Demi turned back to them, disgusted by their prank. "Really James? That's what you do for someone's birthday? And you Sirius, you went along with it? Honestly, you two have to grow up" she said, walking away. Sirius tried calling her back, but she did not stop. Alice and Kiaria looked at them, shaking their heads and walked after Demi.

Sirius and James looked at one another, before James said, "Well, the git did deserve it."

Sirius nodded his head, as Lily walked back to them, evidently angry.

"You both are so stupid and mean. I can't believe you just did that to him. What did he do to deserve that anyway?" she asked.

"Well, he called me a disgrace after the letter my mum sent me" grimaced Sirius.

"Yeah, and he called me and arrogant beast" said James indignantly.

"Well that doesn't give you the right to be so cruel towards him."

"Have you seen who he hangs out with?" asked James.

"Yeah, he's always with Mulciber and Avery. Everyone knows they want to be Death Eaters" Sirius said.

"And if you don't remember what they are, ask Demi again. I'm sure she'll be able to tell you the full story of what they did when she was locked up," spat James.

"He's not like them, I know him better than anyone else" said Lily.

"Fine, let him become a death eater" said James sourly.

"We'll see if he's still as kind to you after" whispered Sirius, and with that the two boys, followed by Peter who had stood there silently throughout the whole ordeal.

Lily stood there for hours, thinking things over._ He's a good person. He would never hurt me, ever. Unless . . . _She pushed all the negative thoughts out of her brain and walked to the Great Hall to meet Severus there. _We're friends, and if I can't trust him who can I trust?_


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

It had been nearly 2 months since the disaster on Severus' birthday had occurred. James and Sirius were now being ignored by all the girls except Demi, who occasionally would hang out with them. The boys had tried to make a truce between themselves and Lily on her birthday, but she wanted nothing to do with them. Remus, after returning from visiting his mother was also unimpressed with what the two boys had done. Nevertheless, he did absolutely nothing to try and make the boys act more mature. Lily, who was still on good terms with Remus thought that he should be able to exercise some control over his friends. It wasn't until the day before spring break during dinner when something extraordinary occurred.

"James, will you pass me the salt please?" asked Sirius.

"Of course, Sirius" replied James passing over the salt shaker.

The rest of their friends (even the older students and people from neighboring tables) were shocked at the amount of good behavior that was seeping out of the two boys. None of them knew, however, that the boys were not doing this to change for good, but to become friends with Lily and the other girls again.

Demi looked across that table at Lily, her eyebrow raised. "Please forgive them," she mouthed. Lily looked down at her plate before looking at James, who was sitting next to Demi. "James, Sirius, I forgive you, just don't do it again," she said.

Sirius looked like Christmas had arrived early, while James was ginning into space. They both high-fived one another, "We can stop being pompous idiots" they said unanimously.

Lily looked back at Demi, "great, now they're going to stop being so mature" she mouthed. Demi looked back her eyes screaming, "I'm not a miracle worker!"

They all rose and went to the common room to relax before bed. Lily looked at the sofas in the common room and took a long look at the stairs leading up to the girl's dormitory. "I'm going to bed, I don't know why, but I'm so tired."

They watched as she walked up to the common room, James screaming "Goodnight Lily, sweet dreams." He looked back to the others smiling maniacally.

"Are you in love with her, or something?" asked Demi, laughing.

"Er, why do you think that?" replied James, his face going red.

"Well, you have a constant desire to ask her out on a date, your always looking at her, no matter what," said Remus counting them off on his fingers.

"You like to make her laugh, no matter how bad the joke" said Sirius.

"You mumble about her when you sleep" said Peter.

"Do not" cried James indignantly.

"Do too," said Frank, causing everyone to laugh.

Kiaria was laughing so hard, she accidentally knocked Demi of the sofa, causing her to fall down the sofa and roll over with the lower half of her hair in the fireplace. It took a moment until she realized and shot up like a bullet. She doused the flames with water coming out of her wand, and then repaired the damaged hair. She clambered back onto the sofa before leaning back and taking a deep breath.

"What the bloody hell just happened!" roared Sirius, causing everyone in the common room (even the older students) to look at the first years in concern.

"What?" said Demi.

"You caught fire!" he said. The prefects and Fabian Prewett (who was friends with Demi) came over.

"What happened?" asked Fabian his eyes filled with concern.

"Nothing, don't worry" said Demi smiling.

"Her hair caught fire" said Sirius, jumping up and down while pointing at his friend's head.

Fabian touched the bottom half of her hair, "and she's repaired it very well, good job" he said, high fiving her, before returning to the conversation he had left earlier. The other two prefects walked away, and the first years herd the word "stupid" leave one of their mouths.

"Just relax Sirius, I'm completely fine" said Demi, walking up to the girls common room for bed. The others followed suit.

The next couple of months brought only more good weather, which also hinted that exams were approaching. People were bursting into tears and one girl fainted when she found out that the OWLs were examined by people from the Ministry of Magic. Lily was constantly reviewing her notes from the past year, as well as harassing the others about the importance of studying. This topic arose, one night in early June, when she was going to bed." I'll have to ask Severus for his notes from the past week, mine aren't as detailed and he has the entire lesson, which I don't understand."

"Why don't you ask one of us?" asked James.

"Because you lot never write anything down. Ever," she said.

"How you guys manage to pass every single test still amazes me" said Kiaria.

"Well I hope they know that I will not be lending them any of my notes either" said Remus. He had asked to borrow theirs from all the other lessons he had missed when he went on his monthly visits to his house to see his mother. The result had been sheaves of parchment with two lines of writing, none of them having to do with the lesson being taught that day. Remus, too, was being engulfed by exam fever and was also reviewing with Lily. The two had stormed out the night before when Sirius was giving them too much hassle.

The next morning at breakfast, Lily made her way down to the Slytherin table, ignoring all the looks of loathing she was getting from the students. She found Severus and asked him for his notes, promising to return them the following morning. Little did she know that that was not going to happen.

That night she attempted to read through the notes in the common room. She still didn't understand it, but that was probably because of the amount of noise James, Peter, and Sirius were causing.

**On the other side of the common room . . . . .**

"So, James, You grab the notes, and I'll distract her. Peter, James'll throw the bundle to you, and you hide them behind the cushions where you're sitting. Ready? Break" said Sirius. He walked over to Lily, who was still frustrated about the concept. "Need help?" he offered.

"No, I think I could get it if you lot kept the noise down. I'm not the only one trying to study, you see?" she replied, indicating and the various fifth and seventh years with their fingers in their ears, reading their notes.

She didn't notice James slide her notes, shuffled with Severus' off of the table. He tied a piece of string around them before, tossing the bundle to Peter, who caught it, yelling "I did it! I did it!"

Lily whipped her head around and saw the stack of parchment in Peter's hands before looking back at Sirius, and then at the table, where James' hands were resting. She jumped up and proceeded to go after Peter, who in his excitement, tripped over a table leg and fell. She saw Peter, covered in parchment. All the notes that had been organized were now everywhere. She grabbed them all with fury. James, Peter and Sirius tried to help but she whacked their hands away from the mess. She turned to face them, tears in her eyes. "You idiots! I hate you!" with that, she ran up to the girls dormitory crying. The three boys stood there, as Remus looked at them with disgust. He turned around and went up the boy's staircase, leaving the three boys to their thoughts.


	20. Chapter 20

_Warning, mild swearing_

Chapter 20

"YOU COMPLETE TOSSPOTS!" yelled Demi, making Peter, Sirius, and James crouch as she towered over them. "YOU THREW HER NOTES, AS WELL AS SEVERUS' NOTES ON THE BLOODY FLOOR, AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN APOLOGIZE! Oh, how I LOATHE you three!" she screamed.

Sirius gulped as he watched her eyes change from brown, to red, to black. The closer he looked, it was as though he could see all his worst memories playing like a film in her iris. He began to lower his gaze until it was at the floor. He was ashamed at what he'd done and wasn't taking a word of what Demi had been screaming at him for the past 2 hours. He decided it was safe to look up again, and when he did he only saw Demi's back as she spoke to Remus.

"-can't believe you just sat there on your ass for the entire duration of their skit. Were you not paying attention?" she asked.

"Well," muttered Remus "I didn't realize what they had been doing . . ." he trailed off. She leaned in and spoke in a whisper inaudible to the rest. When she moved away, Remus looked pale and was shaking slightly. "Yes ma'am" he said, and scurried off to the Great Hall. Demi turned back to the three boys and said, "I sorted out all the notes and it took me the entre night, you three will pretend you did, otherwise she'll never forgive quick enough. Now, you guys can go, and when I bring Lily down, you all will BLODDY APOLOGIZE FOR YOUR DUMBASS BEHAVIOUR!

The boys ran past her in a rush to get through the portrait before she could yell at them some more. Demi walked over to the girl's staircase, and went up to check on Lily. She pushed the door open and saw her friend emerge from the washroom. They both sat in the empty common room (Alice and Kiaria had already left while Demi was yelling at the others), neither saying a word. Suddenly Demi shot up and walked over to Lily and gave her a hug. She felt her friend burst into tears and told her everything would be alright.

_Flashback_

_Demi heard the door of the dormitory being flung open and looked up from her essay. She saw Lily clutching a pack of parchment, her face glistening with tears. Lily had told her, the boys had dropped her's and Severus' notes and some and gone into the fire. "I bet they're still down there having a good laugh" she said sourly. "I told Severus that I'd get his notes back to him tomorrow. I can't tell him some have been burnt, he'll hate me!" she cried. _

"_You get some rest and I'll be right back" said Demi, tucking her friend in bed. When Lily fell asleep, Demi took the notes and went down to the common room. Sure enough, the four boys (Remus included) were still there. "You four, go to bed right now. I can't even look at you," she said._

_The four boys made no effort to fight with her but simply went upstairs. As they passed James and Peter mumbled "sorry." _

_She ignored them, and went to go to the sofa. Sirius came up to her and tried to hug her and tell her sorry. She moved away, looked at him and said, "The person you should be apologizing to is upstairs weeping. So save it, and come down to the Great hall and say sorry them. God forbid I'm up here all night, or when you leave for breakfast tomorrow, I'll be giving you hell." He looked at her, nodded and then followed the others._

_She settled down and sorted out all of the notes. She extracted the remains of Severus' notes from the fire, and settled down. She bewitched 5 quills to re-write the notes in Severus' writing. She recalled what each note said (having read them the same day herself" and waited until they were done. She burned the old copies of Severus' notes and let the new ones dry. She waited until 5 in the morning, and packed them up, leaving them on Lily's bedside table. She'd explain what she'd done after._

_The sun was already coming up, and Demi thought it would be pointless to go to bed now, or she'd never wake up in time for classes. She'd taken a shower, brushed her hair, washed her face, and brushed her teeth. She got dressed and went back downstairs, and that's when the yelling ensued._

Lily looked at Demi and said, "you're like the better version of Petunia. You always take care of me. Thanks."

"Anytime" said Demi.

"How did you manage to get all the notes back? I thought half of them were burnt?" asked Lily.

"You probably didn't check them all properly. It makes sense, what with you all distraught and everything. I made the boys go through the notes and sort them into the right order, she said. "We should probably head downstairs and get something to eat before Charms."

Lily looked at her oddly, "Okay."

They both headed down to the Great Hall. The three boys ambushed Lily when they came to the table, smothering her in 'sorrys.' Lily got up and made her way to Severus, passing him his notes. "Thanks," she said, before she ran back to the other table. The first bell tolled and they made their way to Charms. The lesson was quiet. James, Peter, and Sirius paid close attention. Lily was still angry with them, and Demi was more awake than usual. Lily sensed this and asked her, "Are you okay? You seem more alert."

"Oh, I'm fine," she said quickly as they made their way to Defence class.

"You sure?" asked Lily.

'God, you're not my parent" snapped Demi walking over to sit with Sirius, who looked as though she might start yelling at him again.

Lily went and sat with Severus, talking about exams. Throughout the entire lesson she kept her eyes on Demi, in case something odd happened. The rest of the day passed like this, until Lily finally walked over to Remus and asked, "Is Demi okay?"

"Uh, yeah she is" he lied, knowing full well that Demi had recopied, and sorted out all of Severus' notes, which had taken her the entire night, leading her to get no sleep at all.

"You aren't hiding anything are you?" she inquired.

Remus broke and told her the entire story as they made their way up to dinner at the end of the day. Lily was furious, she pushed open the doors and marched straight over to James, Sirius, and Peter, her face contorted with rage. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU LOT MADE DEMI RE-WRITE EVRYSINGLE ONE OF SEVERUS' NOTES! IT WASN'T HER FAULT. YOU WERE THE ONES WHO SHOULD'VE PAID THE PRICE! SHE HASN'T SLEPT ALL DAY AND WE HAVE OUT EXAMS NEXT WEEK! ALL THE TEACHERS SAID TODAY'S LESSONS ARE THE LAST ONES BEFORE WE START REVIEWING AND THAT EVERYTHING WE LEARNED TODAY WILL BE ON EHTE EAXMS. NOW THATNKS TO YOU, SHE PROBABLY DIDN'T COMPREHEND ANYTHING WE LEARNED TODAY! SHE MIGHT FAIL! She screamed. The three boys looked back down, while the entire student body (none of the teachers were there yet) looked at the first years.

Severus walked over and said, "You idiots burned half of my notes? Who gave you the right to even touch o look at them?" he said rudely.

"Hey, this doesn't involve you" spat James.

"No one even likes you Snivellus, so slither back to your hidey-hole now" said Sirius, while Peter cowered behind the two boys, biting his fingernails.

"At least my parents like me" said Severus, as Sirius got angrier, "You however are hated by everyone in your family, and now that I see how dumb you are, it's clear why" Severus said nastily.

"Oi, ugly, back off" said James pulling out his wand.

"What are you going to do? Shoot sparks out at me?" Severus taunted, pulling his wand out and pointing it at James.

"Shut up, grease head" said Sirius, pulling his wand out and pointing it at Severus' head.

Demi opened the door and saw what was about to happen, all four boys were about to hex one another! Demi pulled out her wand, and yelled "_protego._" An invisible shield prevented the two boys from hexing the other (and vice versa). She strolled towards them calmly and made them lower their wads. "Severus, go to your table, now" she said, putting emphasis on the last word. She removed the shield and looked at the two Gryffindors."Sit down now, before I glue your ass to the seats." The both sat down quickly and faced their plates. The teachers came in and no one spoke of the incident that had occurred as students returned to normal. After dinner the first years went back up to the common room. No one spoke until everyone else had gone to bed. The only people left were James, Lily, Sirius, Demi, Remus, and Peter. The others had gone to bed, none wishing to be part of the exciting event about to take place.

"Listen Lily, I'm sorry. We were being idiots and, we didn't mean for it to go this far," James said.

Lily just nodded at his words, avoiding his eyes.

"Please Lily, just talk to us" said Sirius, "We want to be forgiven."

Lily nodded again before saying, "I'll talk to you, but to be clear, we are not friends. Oh, and stop hexing Severus, he'd nicer that you'd think."

"Nice, he was going to hex us" cried James.

"Yeah, for all we know we could have been a lot worse off, had Demi not cast that shield char and saved our faces," said Sirius pointedly.

"He wouldn't hurt you at all" said Lily "he's not like that."

"You're biased because he's your friend" Sirius stated, "and that's a fact, don't try to deny it."

"Whatever" said Lily, as she got up and climbed up the staircase, "you all hate him because he's different, that all. You'll come around, believe me."

The others followed suit and went to bed as well, James muttering the word "completely" and Sirius muttering the word "mental."


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"So let me get this straight, you don't want to go out with me?" said James. He'd been trying to get Lily to talk to him and Sirius for the past two weeks. The exams were coming up in three days' time, making Lily more formidable than ever. She would promptly leave any room when the two boys would enter, and Severus made it his life's mission to make sure that they never spoke to Lily again. Lily looked at him with disdain, before getting up and going to the girl's dormitory. James was smiling until he heard the door at the top slam shut.

They continued to talk, until Sirius got bored and called Demi downstairs. He waited until he heard her open the top door, but then something went wrong. There was a loud thump as Demi came toppling down the staircase, her limp form slamming each step till she was in a heap on the common room floor. Sirius turned her over and checked for a pulse while everyone else crowded around her. "Quick, get someone-a teacher-anybody-NOW!" He roared at the crowd.

They quickly dispersed, and soon Lily had come down to see what the shouting was about. 'If you guys are –" she stopped, looking at Demi on the ground. She rushed over and checked for a pulse.

"She has one, Sirius checked" said James, solemnly.

Lily looked across Demi at Sirius, curiously, "how did you know to do that?" she asked.

"She needs help, and that's what you're asking?" he spat, as he got up from beside Demi, and walked over to the portrait door which immediately flew open as Professor McGonagall and Fabian Prewett came in. Professor McGonagall conjured up a stretcher and placed Demi on it. She bewitched it to go to the Hospital Wing. Sirius ran to it and picked up one of Demi's hands and walked beside the stretcher, ignoring whatever McGonagall was saying.

As Sirius walked up with Demi to the Hospital he couldn't help noticing something odd, her pulse, for someone who had been knocked out cold was unusually strong and fast. She also felt cold, ice cold. He though that it was because of the temperature in the castle but quickly remembered that it was summer, and the castle would often be stifling hot. He proceeded in silence ignoring the portraits and the passing students. They finally made it to the hospital wing; where Madam Pomfrey attempted to shoo him away.

"I've got her now Mr. Black, why don't you go back to the common room?" she suggested as she busied herself with Demi.

"No, I am staying here. With her" he said stubbornly.

McGonagall came a moment later and turned to Madam Pomfrey, "Poppy, is she alright?" she sounded somewhat tense.

"Yes, thank god" said Madame Pomfrey.

Professor McGonagall turned to Sirius and said, "You ought to go back to your dormitory, you may want to study for your exams."

"I will stay with her no matter what" he responded aggressively.

Sirius sat down, and looked at the clock. It chimed 11 o clock, and as it did, the Hospital doors flew open and two men entered. They both had long, ghostly-looking sliver beards, and bright blue eyes. One was Dumbledore, so the other mist have been. . . . .

"Albus, Aberforth, where have you two been" said McGonagall.

"Just heard now, Minerva" said Aberforth as he sat down, taking one of Demi's hands into both of his own.

"Is she fine? No bruises or cuts?" inquired Dumbledore.

"No, none. We would know if anything would have happened, right?" said Madame Pomfrey.

"Yes, she is far past that stage" murmured Dumbledore as he checked her pupils.

"What stage? What is she far past?" said Sirius, causing everyone who had forgotten he was here to jump.

"Nothing, my dear, nothing" said Madame Pomfrey.

"No I think it is something" said Sirius questioningly.

"Listen here boy-" started Aberforth.

"No, he has the right to ask of the secret, they are close friends" said Dumbledore, smiling down at Sirius. "Unfortunately, it is up to Miss Demitria here if she wished to divulge it. However, I know you wish to stay, Mr. Black, but I do not think that would be a good idea, perhaps a visit in the morning, to make sure she is fit and well. She will most likely be well enough to leave," he smiled.

Sirius understood he was being dismissed and gave Demi's hand a little squeeze as he walked by to the door. Before it shut, he heard Aberforth's voice growl, "so you're taking over the care of Demi as well now? I'd like to see how that goes." Sirius knew it wasn't any good trying to pretend he hadn't heard that, but he'd ask Demi about it later. For now, she needed rest. He managed to make it to the dormitory quietly, but the moment he stepped through, several students rushed forward to ask about her. He walked past quickly and went to sleep, ignoring the rest of his friends, as he worried about another.

_I wonder what her secret is? I wonder what her secret is? This ought to be fun to work with. . . . . _


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Demi woke up to a hell of a lot of noise, as she opened her eyes she could see the various other beds in the hospital wing, "Why the bloody hell am I in here?" she thought. She tried to remember whether the messed up dream she had was real. She remembered waking up to Lily slamming the door shut, and she was unable to fall asleep again. She decided to do some review before exams, and heard Sirius calling her from the foot of the stairs. She was still wracked with sleep, and tried to walk down the stairs, but tripped at the top. After that her mind went blank. She stared up at the ceiling and thought about who might've brought her here, she could vaguely remember her Aberforth and Professor Dumbledore talking loudly while Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall were taking care of her. Professor Dumbledore mentioned something about Sirius and the secret. She shot up quickly, "what if Professor Dumbledore told Sirius the secret?" she wondered, "I could never live with myself, I've hid so much away from them already." She put her head in her hands and continued to mope. Madam Pomfrey came by and gave her her robes to change into. Just as she was finished the door opened and Sirius walked in smiling.

"How are you?" he asked anxiously.

Demi watched as he twisted his hands around and fixed his tie, he seemed somewhat nervous. Dismissing it as a sign of stress because of exams she replied, "Fine, never better."

Sirius turned around and yelled, "Poppy, may I take her?"

"Excuse me, Mr. Black?" she shouted, sticking her head out from behind her office door. "What did you call me?"

"Madam Pomfrey" replied Sirius smiling.

"Yes, yes, take her" said the matron, her eyes closed as rubbed her temples with her fingers.

"Thank you" said Demi smiling.

"Nonsense," replied the matron, "that is why I'm here."

Sirius took Demi's hand and led her out of the Hospital wing. Demi trailed along, wondering why the others did not come. Sirius turned around and said," I didn't tell them I was coming to visit you."

"Why not?" said Demi, surprised that he answered the question.

"I needed to ask you something, about the . . . You know . . . Secret?" he whispered.

"Oh," replied Demi, looking down on the ground. She made her mind up quickly and decided to tell Sirius the truth, or most of it anyway. "Well, you know how the Death Eaters looked me up?" Sirius nodded his head, his face solemn. "They did some experiments and one of them was this injection made of some stuff. I don't know what it was exactly but sometimes I get really tired, or become really awake. I can be fast or I can be like a slug. I varies, but I don't know why. When I came back to school, and Madam Trillium patched me up, she and Dumbledore wondered what it could be, but they never . . . found out," she finished.

"Oh sorry I asked," said Sirius.

"Oh, I don't mind, as long as you don't tell the others. They pity me enough as it is," she laughed.

They both continued on till they reached the Great Hall. Sirius held the door open for her as she walked by and settled down on the benches next to Alice and facing Lily, whose eyes were red and puffy.

"What happened? Are you okay? Do you need any help?" inquired Lily.

Demi and the others laughed at Lily's reaction, she looked as though she would have blown up the staircase if Demi had told her how she'd fallen. They all settled down as Professor McGonagall rushed over to Demi, "Your exam timetable" she said, sliding a piece of parchment toward Demi, "I do hope you feel better" she said smiling at the girl.

Demi opened it up when McGonagall left, inspected it, and left it on the table. Sirius picked it up and said, "How many bloody classes are you taking?"

Demi reached over and pulled it out of his hands and looked over it again, "seems fine to me."

The others crowded around it and read the following;

**Classes**

**Time**

Arithmancy

Monday 9 o'clock

Defence Against the Dark Arts

Monday 12 o'clock

Astronomy

Monday 11 o'clock

Potions

Tuesday 9 o'clock

History of Magic

Tuesday 12 o'clock

Potions

Tuesday 3 o'clock

Charms

Wednesday 10 o'clock

Transfiguration

Wednesday 3 o'clock

Herbology

Wednesday 5 o'clock

_Please note that all exams are two hours in length_

"This is how many you're all taking" she yelled at them as they goggled over her timetable. They each pulled out their own and began to count their exams, Lily got up and gave her paper to Demi "I've only got 8 classes?"

"Oh, I have Arithmancy, so that makes mine 9" Demi replied, comparing the two papers. "You should think about taking it Lily, you'd be very interested. It's like Divination, but with numbers instead."

"What is Divination?" said Lily, raising her eyebrow.

"It's like crystal ball gazing, reading tea leaves, and looking at lunar charts and dream diaries to find out a person's future" piped up Sirius, "Load of bull, if you ask me. Mum's making me take it anyway. Wants to know who I'm going to marry so she can check their blood status" he finished sourly. Everyone looked at him in shock, "her word's, not mine" he surrendered.

They all sat their quietly, Lily thinking deeply. If she was a witch, what kind of careers would she pursue? What types of careers are there? She turned to ask Demi, but before she could open her mouth, Demi beat her to the punch. "There are so many careers to choose from, you go through a guidance session with your head of house near the end of your fifth year. Bu they give you some papers to look through to get a feel of things. It's not bad."

Lily simply nodded her head, taking it all in. Her mother was a nurse and her father worked in a business as an accountant. She thought of all of the careers she would have pursued had she been a muggle, but being a witch was way cooler.

They made their way to the library to study for the exams, Lily stopped by the table to ask Severus if he'd like to join them.

"Of course" said Severus promptly, leaving his breakfast behind. They all managed to make it to the library without anyone hexing someone else. However, someone got in their way before they could call it a successful peaceful journey. Some of the sixth years thought it would be funny to hex unsuspecting first years, as they made their way to the library. One of the boys, a Slytherin was about to raise his wand before . . . .

"Expelliarmus!" shouted Demi, catching the wand soaring throught the air.

The boy rubbed his hand, as if it had gotten burnt and said, "Gimme my wand back, half-breed."

Everyone in the hall stopped. Demi looked at the boy, her eyes changing from brown to black, beginning to play the boy's worst fears as he looked into them. He fell back on his butt, and began to scoot away from the approaching girl. She pointed her wand in the air and said calmly, "you may think you all that, but let me tell you something; you're not. So, you can both accept it and leave at the count of ten, or in ten seconds I will jinx your ass so badly, that your grandkids will be able to feel it. Understood?" she smiled.

"Uh-ye-yes-ma-ma'am" the boy spluttered, catching his wand that Demi had thrown back to him. He got up and ran down the hall with his friends in tow.

"Okay, now. On to the library" she said, marching along the corridor, her friends walking silently behind her.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

"I think I'm going to die" said Sirius as they walked-no-trudged up the staircase to their final exam. She could hear James walking behind her muttering, 'just herbology, just herbology' over and over.

"Don't worry, its only Herbology, and then we're free," said Demi.

They continued on like this until they reached the examination room. They settled down and began to write. Slowly, for two hours the only sound that could be heard was the scratching of quills on parchment and the sighs of the first years. Then the clock chimed seven. The students waited until Professor Sprout had collected their papers and thy filed out of the classroom and down to dinner, where the commotion of the school year's end was felt by everyone. Students- especially the fifth and seventh year students- were positively beaming. Lily and Remus had their heads together, trying to figure out what questions they answered correctly.

"Wait, the Venomus Tentacula can grow up to 10 feet, not 5 feet," said Lily pointedly.

"But, I circled 5 feet" Remus sighed slapping his hand over his eyes, "I've failed."

"Why do you two care about your studies **this** much?" asked Sirius.

"Because, I want to do this thing called 'passing' to 'get somewhere in life'" said Lily.

"Yeah, I mean, you three (Remus pointed at Demi, James, and Sirius) just manage to get good marks easily. The rest of us have to try to be where you lot are," he finished.

"I'm touched" said Alice laughing.

"No I didn't mean you're stupid!" corrected Remus, causing the others to burst out laughing.

"Relax, Remus, she was only pulling your leg" said Frank, slamming the table with his hands in laughter.

Remus joined in, and soon, the entire Gryffindor table was chuckling. The other tables looked around at them as tears streaked down their faces. The Professors were also laughing, but for their own reasons. Soon, it was time to go to bed and everyone was so excited that exams were over, they were too hyper to sleep. The first years were left in the common room, relaxing in front of the fire, in the warm, comfy armchairs.

"Ugh, we're going back in two days' time" said Sirius.

"Why do you sound so upset? Don't you miss your family?" asked Peter.

"Not really, I mean, I miss my brother Regulus, but that's about it. My Mum and Dad aren't going to be pleased to see me."

"How old is Regulus? Asked Demi.

"He's coming to Hogwarts next year" Said Sirius, his voice indicating that he wanted the subject to change.

"Well, I'm going to have an odd summer" said Demi, "Professor Dumbledore is taking me to see some of the magical landmarks all over the world. We're planning to go to America and start from there. I'll make sure to pick some stuff up for you guys."

"Thanks" said the others.

"I'm going to Wales, for a wedding" said Peter, "It's a bit odd though, considering that I don't know whose wedding it is."

Everyone laughed at the boy's remark. "I'm spending the summer training to join the Gryffindor Quidditch team" said James.

"What position?" inquired Kiaria.

"Chaser" replied James.

"No way, I'm going up for chaser too!" Kiaria shouted, causing everyone to jump.

"What about the rest of you? Anyone else joining?" said Alice.

"Er- I might try out for seeker" said Demi timidly.

"I might try out for beater" said Sirius, and the two high-fived.

"What about you, Remus. I'd reckon you'd be a good keeper" said James, sizing him up.

"No thanks, I have enough accidents on ground, we don't need to add airborne ones in as well" he smirked, causing everyone to laugh.

"What are you doing for the holidays Lily?" asked Alice.

"Trying to get Petunia to forgive me, and hanging out with Sev" she said.

"Petunia still mad?" asked Demi.

"Yep. What about you Alice, what are you doing?"

"I might just relax at home, and hang out with my cousins and stuff, my family and I don't do much in the summer. What about you, Kiaria?"

"Same as you, just messing around. Remus?"

"Going to the countryside with my mum and dad."

One by one, they all began to feel tired with the amount of energy the previous days had taken out of them they all went to bed and fell asleep before their heads hit their pillows.

The next day passed in monotony. Nothing exciting happened, unless you count in Sirius and James dumping the content so f Remus' trunk into the common room 'by accident'. The End of the Year feast was about to take place as the students headed down to the Great Hall at 6.

"Another year, gone" started Professor Dumbledore "it is now time to tally the points. In fourth place with 230 points, Hufflepuff. In third place, with 250 points, Ravenclaw."

A huge cheer erupted from the Hufflepuff able, they were easily pleased.

"This was a very close tie. In Second place, with 450 points . . . . . . Slytherin. Finally in first place with 460 points, Gryffindor house."

The Gryffindor's whipped off their hat and tossed them into the air, shouting with glee. The boys were clapping one another on the back, while the girls all jumped up and down, hugging one another. The amount of optimism emitted from the one table, was enough to make the losers of the year happy as well. The rests of the night was passed making some last minute preparations, as the students went to bed early.

The next morning, the student s made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast, talking in the short hours they all had together. The Hogwarts Express was parked in the train station in Hogsmeade, and the students piled themselves into it. Lily left with Severus, making sure that James, Sirius and Peter did have any opportunity to prank him before they left for the next two months. Frank, Alice, Kiara, Demi, James, Remus, and Sirius clambered into another compartment and relaxed as they pulled out of the station and over the river. The journey passed quickly, floo network numbers were exchanges, jokes were told and sweets were eaten. They grabbed their trunks, heaving them out onto the platform. Sirius shuffled over to his mother, who looked down at him, her eyes filled with loathing, and from the way she grasped Sirius form the back of his neck, Demi was sorely tempted to rip the lady into pieces. He saw Sirius turn around and wave at the others before going through the barrier. Lily made her way to her parents, while Petunia hid behind their mother, clearly not excited to see her sister after months apart. Demi looked around her. She saw parents yelling at their kids for something they had done in school, hugging, kissing, and reflected on the school year. She smiled to herself, thinking, _I wonder what'll happen next year. _She grabbed her luggage and walked through the barrier to meet Professor Dumbleore.


End file.
